Planetary Society press release:
http://www.planetary.org/about/press/releases/2006/0104_Is_Pluto_a_Planet_or_Is_It_Not__The.html - Is Pluto a Planet or Is It Not? The Planetary Society Seeks Top Ten Lists
--- In honor of the launch of the New Horizons mission, the Society announces a call for the public to speak up and tell us:
The Top 10 Reasons Pluto IS a Planet, or
The Top 10 Reasons Pluto IS NOT a Planet
Even The Planetary Society's own Board of Directors is split, with Chairman Neil deGrasse Tyson wanting to demote Pluto from the planetary ranks and other members of the Board staunchly defending Pluto's status. In the interest of impartiality and public engagement, The Planetary Society is calling for reasons on both sides of the issue. For the next eight days, visitors to the Society's website can share their reasons why Pluto should or should not continue to be ranked as one of the solar system's nine planets. The deadline for submissions is Thursday, January 12, 2006. The final Top 10 Lists will be released prior to the launch of the New Horizons mission. ---
http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/topten/ - Pluto Top Ten
http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/topten/enter.html - Enter the Contest!
Of course ... Clyde TOMBAUGH found PLANET X back in 1930
Some more good tidbits, is that this battle is not completely serious but also open to WIT and HUMOR!
To quote some additional relevant paragraphs from The Planetary Society:
The Top Ten Reasons Pluto IS a Planet
The Top Ten Reasons Pluto IS NOT a Planet
"Although the debate within the planetary community about Pluto's status is serious, the Top 10 Lists on our website do not have to be," said Bruce Betts, The Planetary Society's Director of Projects. "We will be looking for humorous rather than scientific reasons, although reasons that combine both would be a bonus."
That's right, in the interest of impartiality, we are calling for reasons on both sides of the issue. Don't be shy -- tell us why! Be creative, be silly, be witty, you can even be scientific, but that's not required.
The call for entries begins today, Wednesday, January 4 and ends on Thursday, January 12, 2006 at 12:00 noon Pacific time (20:00 UTC). Submissions are limited to five reasons per person per day for each list. A secret panel of judges will compile the final lists, which will be posted on our website prior to the launch of the New Horizons mission".
Just pointing out that this contest closes tomorrow...I DEMAND that you guys go BE FUNNY NOW!!! Seriously, please do your part to help reduce the net number of groans that the final top ten lists will inevitably elicit...
--Emily
But its a serious issue!
<ben_stein>
But we are planetary geologists. Humor is not an option.
</ben_stein>
--Bill
According to Alan Stern, it's a planet because it doesn't look like Bizarro World.
Pluto is a planet because changing all the text books, encyclopedias, and references from the "9 planets of the solar system" to the "8 planets" would be cost-prohibative.
My entries on both sides of the issue are in.
Here's another that I couldn't get under the 128 character limit and have it make sense:
It IS a planet because we'd want to avoid hearing http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/ from Pluto: "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a planet. I coulda been somebody, instead of a KBO, which is what I am. Let's face it. It was you, IAU. "
The first discovery of a "new" planet was in 1781. The second, 1846, 75 years later. The third, 1930, 84 years later. If 2003 UB313 is considered a planet, then 73 years would have elapsed between the third and fourth new planets. That's an average of 77 years between "new planets". I think that's a nice sedate pace I think we could keep up for a while.
The results are in...
http://planetary.org/explore/topics/topten/
A very strong showing from the UMSF folks, especially Lyford! Thanks guys!
--Emily
Weh hey
I love "It doesn't appear to be so inclined. " - That's GENIUS
Doug
Pluto is not a planet, and I'll tell you why cause “plutonians are teh suck!” (private joke for ATHF fans)
Its to small and to far and if we add it in we have to add in alot of other KBO that including pluto are nothing but oversize comets in badly need of some sun.
F the grade school books, the USA school system is already teaching them kids misinformation: why stop at sex ed and evolution lets get astronomy in there to!
Seems like the term "ice dwarf" is catching on. Though I really like http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=1456&view=findpost&p=36444 "giant cosmic dust bunnies". Think the IAU would go for that?
Sorry to dredge up an older topic...however, there was talk of the 'is Pluto a planet' in another forum that I wanted to respond to but it would have been off topic.
According to the wikipedia entry for 'Planet'...The name comes from the Greek term πλανήτης, planētēs, meaning "wanderer", as ancient astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky in relation to the other stars.
So therefor only Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are 'Planets'. Since 'Planet' already has such a definition, let's move on. We need a word or words for rocky worlds and gaseous worlds. There should be a lower size limit to exclude debris. Our asteroid belt, and now TNOs/KBOs, make this more difficult as there's such a range within a given volume of space.
I'm sure whatever the IAU does decide it will be unpopular with one group or another.
I'm in favor of the word "Orbiter", as in "The orbiter Earth", "Third orbiter from the sun".
Planet - classical planet
Planetoid - planet-like
Asteroid - star-like
Comet - classical comet
Cometoid - comet-like
Bob Shaw
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