6 mo. ago • 96%

You are in this solar system, but we do not grant you the rank of planet

79 comments

Pluto will always be a planet to me, and you'll pry that definition from my cold, dead hands!

79
- Stay strong. A dwarf planet is a perfectly valid kind of planet, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
  
  48
  
  It's not the size that counts but the ability to clear your orbit. ;)
  
  30
  
  Does it dig mines and sing upbeat work songs?
  
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- Arenyou gonna start calling Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Orcus planets?
  
  We went through this 150 years ago ehen the asteroid belt was discovered. Every astronomer wanted credit for discovering a new planet, so at one point there were 15 before all the astronomers got together and said it was untenable.
  
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  Yes. We could have had a planet Orcus and we were like "nah, we'll pass." That would have been metal as shit.
  
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- without orbital dominance?
  
  amazon.com ass planet with fake reviews.
  
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  So Neptune has a rogue rock in its orbit that also orbits the sun and we're just gonna give Neptune a pass on that one because we saw it first.
  
  At best, this is size discrimination, and neptunotism, and we both know it!
  
  14
  
  Yeah but it's delivered with a nice hand written note from a single mom in China so I 5 star anyways.
  
  6
  
  The central point that Pluto and Charon orbit about is also outside of Pluto. All other planets have the center point located within the planet.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pluto-Charon_system-new.gif
  
  2
- Real scientific, Jerry.
  
  13
  
  Hungry For Apples?
  
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- Whatever, Pluto is a dwarf planet like every other dwarf planet too.
  
  7
- A dwarf planet is a type of planet, right?
  
  3
  
  Not according to the IAU.
  
  According to the IAU, "planets and dwarf planets are two distinct classes of objects" – in other words, "dwarf planets" are not planets.
  
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- New Billy Joel song? I heard he's writing again.
  
  1
You know, this post made me realize something. Some people are viewing it in terms of "rank", instead of an arbitrary scientific classification designed to efficiently communicate ideas in a clear and concise way.

It's like ... mythology or something, and the planet(oid) being anthropomorphized.

Do people also view kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species as "ranks" of some sort, with some intrinsically greater value being given to some over others?

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- It’s like … mythology or something, and the planet(oid) being anthropomorphized.
  
  I mean, the planet(oid)s are named after gods.
  
  The personification of its classification is probably related to the exclusivity of the title and “bigger is better” mentality. Since every life form has a taxonomy for domain to species, there’s not really an exclusivity to each echelon. I don’t imagine anybody really thinks like this meme below, for example:
  
  16
  
  This makes me want to devise a tiered, inclusive classification scheme for space objects.
  
  We could start with orbital objects, any object that normally experiences regular, periodic orbits with minimal deviation. So, everything in the galaxy would be one except potentially Sag A, and the galaxy itself. Perhaps the next branching subsets could be things undergoing continuous fusion somewhere in their body or not?
  
  7
- Do people also view kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species as "ranks" of some sort, with some intrinsically greater value being given to some over others?
  
  Well, for humans we most certainly do
  
  9
  
  So, "homo" is better than "sapiens"? And "animal" is better than homo sapiens?
  
  Or do I have it backwards, and "lower" ranks are better? So, "pinus ponderosa" would be better than "plant"?
  
  4
- I think it'll matter a bit more once (if) we get to explore our solar system for real. I feel like right now the concept of "planet" is still rather distant in our minds and a lot of people just base it on vibes
  
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- Hard not to anthropomorphize things when they’re named after our gods
  
  3
- Thing is everyone has one of those.
  
  Compare it to non-sentience, sentience, and sapience, to properly anthropomorphize it.
  
  3
  
  Every celestial body fits into a specific classification too.
  
  1
- Planet Y
  
  In case it's a dwarf
  
  0
  
  Planet _x
  
  4
Damnit who let Elon name that planet?

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When ever Eris isn't on screen everyone should be asking "Where's Eris?"

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- "Where is Eris? Is it safe? Is it all right?"
  
  "It appears that, in your anger... You classified it as a dwarf planet."
  
  "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
  
  34
  
  Hmmm… Lost a planet Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing.
  
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  Our Ceres is perfectly legal
  
  5
- Note: Eris died on the way back to his home minor planet.
  
  3
The planet formerly known as twitter.

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- Alright, if I ever talk about this planet this is what I'm calling it from now on.
  
  2
aint no planet x coming cause aint no space cuz aint not globe earth

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- aint no birds flying cause aint no worms cuz aint not soil earth
  
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  Permanently Deleted
  
  0
- Cease your investigation!
  
  4
- Todd Clorox told me everything!
  
  2
  
  The them themself!
  
  pawb is down today
  
  1
Imagine how poor Pluto would feel if we decided this new entry counted as a proper planet.

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- Nah, man. Pluto doesn’t care any more. Even as a dwarf planet, he knows he’s still hot shit
  
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  Pluto is the celestial body your Wife tells you not to worry about because “Oh, don’t worry it’s just Pluto coming over when you are out of town, and Pluto isn’t a planet so there is nothing for you to get anxious or jealous about”.
  
  5
- It'd have to be exceptionally large to clear its orbital path at that distance from the sun. It'll probably join Pluto in the dwarf planet category.
  
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- He should pull himself up by his bootstraps and get his Alpha Planet grindset on. No one can be a proper planet with this Sigma Planet mindset
  
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Is planet X really discovered?

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- They found more evidence for its existence recently, but no. Nobody has ever seen it or even found out in which direction to look. The evidence is that the other planets move in ways that only makes sense if there is some mass somewhere pulling their orbits.
  
  Sort of like having to discover the moon from watching the tides in the sea.
  
  37
  
  this method is how we discovered Neptune and Pluto and many exoplanets. Kepler's laws are extremely specific about orbits, so once you pin down the disturbances the planet makes you significantly narrow down the places it can be.
  
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  Thought there were some significant progress..
  
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  Have they tried looking up towards the sky? I think they won't find it underground.
  
  1
I saw it named planet 9

Named so here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Nine

Planet X

~~Ceres~~ and Eris didn’t even get turns being planets

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- Ceres was considered a planet in the first half of the 1800's, along with a bunch of things in the asteroid belt. There was a point where there were 64 planets.
  
  In the present state of knowledge astronomers give us the following list:
  Sixty-four "primary planets" revolving round the Sun as our Earth does.
  Twenty satellites, including our Moon.
  Of the sixty-four primary planets fifty-six are asteroids, comparatively small bodies, all of which were discovered in this century, and fifty-two since the year 1844.]
  
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Finally, all that yoyo polish!

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I believe there was a mathematical constant to find the space ( km/ lightyaers from the sun ) where a planet should be. Do'nt remember the name tho. Is pluto on the next 'free space' ?

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