No more 9 Planets

[DW_e_aLpHa]

-- Well Ladies and Gent -- Say Good Bye to Pluto .. We have now only 8 Planets - not 9 anymore .. So rewrite your History :)

[DW_e_aLpHa]

The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.

For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun — "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.

[DW_Ifondlesweaters]

YAY!!! Time for a new mnemonic device!!!

My Very Energetic Mother Just Sold Us Narcotics!

[DW_Hornet]

and if they decide to bring back pluto you can add paraphernalia to it.

[KarnEvil9]

For 40+ some odd years now Pluto has been described to me by everyone I know as being a planet,....I just can't see how a group of folks (no matter how smart) is going to be able to alter my perception of the solar system simply by redefining the terms of description. Pluto is still a planet, :thumbright: then again, now that I think about it,....who cares! LOL :geek:

[DW_Ifondlesweaters]

This just in: Scientists, running with their debunking of Pluto as a planet, have decided to finally admit that when they officially named Uranus, yes, they were chuckling to themselves.

Which all fits into my theory that after astronomers discovered Saturn, they started smoking dope. Because then there was Uranus *giggle*, they sobered up for Neptune, and then they went on a bender before discovering Pluto (incedentally their favorite cartoon character), which turns out not to be a planet after all.

OOPS! Time to cross out some lines in the outdated textbooks of America, right after the chapter about how men are innately smarter and superior to women in all ways.

[DW_Wraith]

I'll always think of Pluto as being a planet, I don't care what anyone else says....

:cheers:

I'm just wondering why all of a sudden they want to start doing their cosmic spring cleaning now. Why not leave things as they were. Are they running out of things to do (cosmically), or what? Did they decided they wanted to make some money by writing new science books and creating a reason to buy the new science texts by redefining this stuff?

[DW_Ifondlesweaters]

Just stay tuned, Wraith. Whenever they kill off a star on TV, they usually bring in a hipper star. With Pluto gone, can't wait to see who they pick to take his place. Maybe the astronomers will collaborate with FOX and put it to a vote all across America.

We'll have to wait 'til fall.

[Zax_Gentoo_Box]

They'll prolly bring in Pluto's Evil Twin Brother... Otulp! Soap soap SOAP!

[MeUBastard]

ya, i heard bout it on the bus on the way back from C9, it pissed me off, how can they do that? just *zip* hey wat dya know, only 8 planets, y dunt we jus re-write our school books n watnot? y drop it out? scientists knew for yrs it wasnt a planet, but a peace of 'space debris' (srry i cant spell) from the outer limits of the solar system. arent these the same scientists that just found like....4 new planets or sumthin sill in our solar system...cuz wouldnt that move it to like, 12 or sumthin? neone shed sum lite on the new planet issue?

MeUBastard
*CAS*