2006/08/24 - Goodbye Pluto

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Which plan do you support?

kick out Pluto and keep the other 8
2
22%
upgrade our solar system to the 12 planets combo (i.e. add Xena, Charon and Ceres)
2
22%
add Xena but forget about the other 2 (Charon and Ceres)
0
No votes
keep it the same as now (9 planets)
3
33%
add 3, 15, 100 or any number of objects that's round enough to circle our sun
2
22%
I don't care
0
No votes
 
Total votes : 9

2006/08/24 - Goodbye Pluto

Postby nil on Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:52 am

Pluto has been demoted! The IAU (International Astronomical Union) kicked out Pluto from our big solar system family. Now we are down to 8 planets in our world.

What have Pluto done to deserve this? According to the official excuse, Pluto has invaded Neptune's privacy (or in astronomers' terms, it fails to clear the orbit of its neighbourhood).

But we all know the real culprit is Xena. Xena killed Pluto. Just who is Xena? Xena is the warrior princess you see in TV. It's also a new "rock" found by Michael Brown and his team from CalTech in 2003. Its official name is 2003 UB313.

The trouble started when they found out Xena is bigger than Pluto... Now, as you know, many astronomers have been unhappy about little Pluto for a long time... Some museums even dropped Pluto long before today's decision was made. They just thought that Pluto was a bit un-planetly. Now, the discovery of Xena gave them a good excuse to pound on little Pluto, and so they did.

There was an alternative considered before they dropped Pluto. The original Plan A was to add Xena, together with Ceres (which had briefly been called a planet in 1800s before it was kicked out from the club like Pluto) and Charon (which was Pluto's good buddy planet, or some call it the satellite of Pluto). The problem for Plan A was we could potentially end up with hundreds of "planets" in our solar system and be eternally cursed by the grade school students who need to remember all the planet names ... so instead of saying "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza", they need to memorize a whole essay, probably relating to parenthood and other delivery food.

So for the goodness of the future generation, the IAU decided to kick out little Pluto just so the other 3 planets couldn't complaint that they are being discriminated from joining the planet club.

What do you think about their idea?
...
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Postby TheCountess on Mon Aug 28, 2006 7:38 am

Keep Pluto! I mean... It won't kill them to have one exception to the rule... Jeez... Is the whole "What is a planet" thing that big a deal?
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Postby Astarte on Mon Aug 28, 2006 7:39 am

:P to those who feel they are above Pluto.
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Postby Pimienta on Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:29 pm

I'm all for keeping pluto
I mean really what gives them the power to disown pluto anyway
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Postby hamster on Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:41 pm

How on earth can future school children learn that lovely planetary rhyme: Many Vicious Elephants Munch Jelly Sandwiches Under Nutty ... Palms

if Pluto no longer belongs?
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Postby Astarte on Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:40 am

Did you know that Pluto has two moons? How does a non-planet manage moons??
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Postby Cherokee_girl on Sat Sep 02, 2006 8:05 pm

I like pluto!! I want to keep it!
I like Anime and Manga and Music and DOCTOR WHO!!
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Postby hamster on Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:10 pm

Cherokee_girl wrote:I like pluto!! I want to keep it!


It's all yours! Send $50 to PO Box 54365, Chazoatown, Mo, 76543. Operators are standing by.
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Postby nil on Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:10 am

I have a vigororus debate about Pluto with my 4 years old niece, I tried to convince her there was only 8 planets in the solar system now instead of the 9 she had been taught a couple weeks ago. She won the debate by a threat of tear-terrorism....
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Postby Pimienta on Thu Sep 07, 2006 2:12 pm

I think that if we all go to the people who said it wasn't a planet and threaten them with tear terrorism it might work to bring it back

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: I want pluto back
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Postby hamster on Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:07 pm

As ruler of the universe, it is incumbent upon you to force the change, Pimienta.

Pimienta wrote:I think that if we all go to the people who said it wasn't a planet and threaten them with tear terrorism it might work to bring it back

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: I want pluto back
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134340

Postby nil on Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:40 am

More bad news for Pluto, now it's just a number: 134340.

Instead of calling it Pluto, we just call it 134340 (see how easy it is to remember? you can even type it with the numeric keypad of a cell phone).

Another interesting fact: Nasa is sending a space craft "new horizons" to Pluto. It was launched on Jan this year. Riding aboard are ashes of the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh who discovered Pluto in 1930. What would Clyde think now when he's heading to a number instead of a planet :noclue:
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Postby Cherokee_girl on Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:38 pm

Just because it has a number doesn't mean I'll call it that. I'll remember that number for one reason: to call it pluto when it's brought into conversation. 134340
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Postby Astarte on Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:26 pm

I'm disgusted. :x
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Postby TheCountess on Wed Sep 13, 2006 8:14 am

*sadness*
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