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[–] 23 points 2 months ago (11 children)

if you wanna call Pluto a a planet, do it. The IAU is not going to arrest you or something.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Don't believe this person, I said it was a planet and spent 5years locked away in the planetarium

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    And the sun is flat. Fight me.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    You think the sun is flat?

    Bro... The UNIVERSE is flat.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    The argument that Pluto would be a planet if it were in a different orbital track is pretty disingenuous, because in a different orbital track it might also be a moon of Jupiter or just flung out into interstellar space.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    I think the argument was more of proposing that the definition of its own orbital track is not informative of anything of the body itself but instead only of what is surrounding the object. The argument seems to be an extension of the planetary scientist school of thought (definition of planet should describe planet) vs the astronomical side (name describes motion/in relation to its surroundings)

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  • [–] 45 points 2 months ago (12 children)

    Either we now have to learn like 21 planets in elementary school (hard) or Pluto gets a technical demotion (easy).

    Pluto is still a planet in all our hearts, this is just humanities constant march of trying to become more and more accurate and precise with time

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (9 children)

    Teaching the dwarf planets could be fun, though. What about thebfact that Pluto and Charon orbit one another, and how you could build a space elevator directly from.the surface of one to.the other?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    wait what? how would that be possible

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago* (6 children)

    Space is really huge and it might be possible that the theoretical space elevator would never strike another celestial body.

    This is 100% speculative and I have absolutely not done any fact checking other than the fact that space is indeed, really Big McLargeHuge.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    searches

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking

    However, if both the difference in mass between the two bodies and the distance between them are relatively small, each may be tidally locked to the other; this is the case for Pluto and Charon

    They're apparently tidally-locked, so that's one issue out of the way.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(moon)

    Periapsis: 19 592.61 km

    Apoapsis: 19 598.92 km

    Eccentricity: 0.000161[10]

    So it's pretty close to a circular orbit.

    Orbital period: (6 d, 9 h, 17 m)

    But it'd still have to change length by about 6 km every 3 Earth days.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    But it’d still have to change length by about 6 km every 3 Earth days.

    Maybe this is crazy, but make it a giant jumprope. When they're closer together, the jumprope makes a tighter circle and spins faster. When they're further apart, the jumprope makes a larger circle. Put a weight in the middle so it has enough centripetal force to keep the rope taut.

    Trust me, it works, I thought about it for two minutes.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Pluto is still a planet in all our hearts

    My heart pumps blood. My brain does the thinking. Pluto is not a planet. So what? It's still fascinating.

    Pluto and Charon are tidally locked, meaning they always face each other as they orbit around. Romanticizing a bit, they are like dancers.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU5pQWQRxak

    I'm your moon, you're my moon,

    We go round and round.

    From out here, it's the rest of the world that looks so small.

    Promise me you will always remember who you are.

    Labels can be helpful for categorizing, organizing our knowledge. Labels do not define us. We're all space stuff.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago
    [–] 9 points 2 months ago (16 children)

    Oh, plutodrama is still going on. What is the current definition of planet?

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  • [–] 18 points 2 months ago* (15 children)

    Orbits the sun, has enough gravity to form a sphere and has cleared it's orbit. It's the clearing the orbit part where Pluto fails, as do Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. And also Quaoar, Orcus, Ixion, Varuna, Sedna, Gonggong, Salacia, Varda, Hygiea and Vesta. They all orbit in basically an asteroid field.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    Do the Trojan asteroid clusters in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 points still count as β€œclearing its orbit”?

    What if there were a second planet-sized body there?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Clearing the orbit is a very shorthand version of the meaning. If it was literal, nothing could be a planet as there's always something in every orbital path. It means the planet is massive enough to be the dominant thing within its orbit.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Mercury is an interesting case. While there are some moons that are larger than it, they aren't nearly as dense. Its surface gravity is only a little less than Mars, even though its smaller in size, so it has potential for orbital domination. The Sun certainly helps in keeping other objects clear, but that shouldn't be part of the equation, if Mercury qualifies as a planet it should be able to do it in any orbit. I wonder if you put Mercury where Ceres is and ran for a few millennia what would happen?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago*

    Do the Trojan asteroid clusters in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 points still count as β€œclearing its orbit”?

    What if there were a second planet-sized body there?

    I would say in that example:

    • Jupiter is the dominant mass making it be the planet.
    • Anything in the Lagrangian points would not be planets specifically because anything in those points are there because of Jupiter and its orbit, not in spite of it.
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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago* (5 children)

    So a coin stops being money if tossed to a garbage pile? :)

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    A forged coin isn't money despite seeming like it is at first glance.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    Pluto is real. The only problem with it -- it being in the garbage belt and not in a separate orbit. Or is there something else?

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago

    Pluto is only 68% of the size of the Earth's moon. It is only about 2.5 times larger than Ceres, the largest asteroid in our solar system.

    A large part of science is refining your understanding as contradictory evidence is found. I used to think Pluto should be a planet, and even met Clyde Tombaugh once, but I have absolutely no concerns about Pluto being reclassified as a dwarf planet. It is just a label and our understanding evolves.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Pluto in a tiny squeaky voice: "yes"

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago

    Trump is literally just doing sitcom bits now

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  • [–] 27 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    More recently, the campaign has taken on a populist tinge, with Trump’s Nasa administrator, Jared Isaacman, telling a congressional committee in April that he was in favour of a rethink. β€œI am very much in the camp of Make Pluto a Planet Again,” he said.

    I think this says all that needs to be said about it.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago
    [–] 5 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 20 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    no. I really wish non scientists would stay out of details like what is actual medicine or classification of astronimical objects.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I'm no scientist, but it's a pretty obvious no if you understand the reason it's no longer considered a planet.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    This kind of thing just fuels the anti-science conservative agenda. Knock it off.

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  • [–] [S] 0 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago

    It rejects science and calls back to "back in my day" folksy rhetoric as the only "evidence" that it should regain planetary status, and frames the entire change as a bureaucratic process being run by out of touch elites. It's conservative populism at it's finest. Straight out of their playbook.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    Pretty sure there's an Aesop Rock song about this...

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    More recently, the campaign has taken on a populist tinge, with Trump’s Nasa administrator, Jared Isaacman, telling a congressional committee in April that he was in favour of a rethink. β€œI am very much in the camp of Make Pluto a Planet Again,” he said.

    nobody cares about your opinion

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    They say Pluto is not a planet. Do you think that Pluto gives a shit? https://youtu.be/kK0KPuH32mc

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  • The IAU can go to buggery: Pluto was, is, and always will be a planet!

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago

    You hear about Pluto? That's messed up right?

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