Comments on: ‘Pluto is still a planet. Bitches.‘

By: Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:03:56 +0000

The reason people don’t like it is because it challenges a lot of long-held beliefs. A planet is a lot more significant, psychologically, than most micro-organisms. It’s like suddenly learning that your dog, which you’ve known is a dog all your life, and everyone you’ve ever talked to told you was a dog, and has been for as long as people knew about it, was actually a species of rat. not something people are going to jump up and down about. And most are going to bristle at the notion. It isn’t rational. But its perfectly human.

By: TomJoe

TomJoe — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:31:20 +0000

I don’t see the fuss. In microbiology things are reclassified/renamed all the time. These changes are dependent upon new information. The same thing happened with Pluto, no biggie.

Just because Pluto is no longer classified as a “planet” doesn’t mean its no longer out there.

By: Romeo Vitelli

Romeo Vitelli — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:41:46 +0000

I don`t blame her for throwing him out. Dude is crazy.

By: Curious Wavefunction

Curious Wavefunction — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:29:28 +0000

My sympathies with Pluto. You may find the following book interesting

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465013627/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243477656&sr=1-1

By: J

Thu, 28 May 2009 01:59:42 +0000

I find Pluto’s reclassification rather ironic — I remember when people were excited over finding more planets beyond Pluto, (Planet X anyone?), and letting them join the party. Then we find more planets, and boom, Pluto is kicked.

I am of the opinion that ‘planet’ should be a layman’s term, like ‘continent’ — geologists have something different, with a specific meaning, and they don’t go around upsetting people by redefining ‘continent’ so that Australia isn’t a continent anymore. Continent is not their word to define. Astronomers can have special words all of their own for what everyone else is quite happy to lump together in the catchall layman’s description of big round balls of rock, gas, and metal orbiting a star – ‘planet’.

With that, Pluto is a planet. So is Eris, perhaps along with a few of their Kuiper belt friends.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:46:37 +0000

How do we convince the IAU to reinstate Pluto?

By: Seelye Martin

Seelye Martin — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:58:11 +0000

For an interview with pluto about being reclassified, see the short story by John Scalzi,
Pluto Tells All, at
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring2007/fiction-pluto-tells-all-by-john-scalzi/