Pluto will always be a planet to me, and you’ll pry that definition from my cold, dead hands!
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.
Yes. We could have had a planet Orcus and we were like “nah, we’ll pass.” That would have been metal as shit.
New Billy Joel song? I heard he’s writing again.
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?
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:
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?
Hard not to anthropomorphize things when they’re named after our gods
Thing is everyone has one of those.
Compare it to non-sentience, sentience, and sapience, to properly anthropomorphize it.
Every celestial body fits into a specific classification too.
Yeah but no one just has a kingdom or phylum.
Every living creature gets an entry from domain to species.
Celestial bodies aren’t a hierarchy, a planet isn’t also a dwarf planet or an asteroid.
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
Planet Y
In case it’s a dwarf
Planet x
Damnit who let Elon name that planet?
Imagine how poor Pluto would feel if we decided this new entry counted as a proper planet.
Nah, man. Pluto doesn’t care any more. Even as a dwarf planet, he knows he’s still hot shit
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”.
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.
Is planet X really discovered?
Finally, all that yoyo polish!
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’ ?
