Re: The IAU is people by lunatics and old geezers

Shawn Curry wrote:
Sam Wormley wrote:
Rich wrote:

I saw the shots of their meeting. They all look like they are pushing
60 years of age or older.
Those are the only reasons they came up with the idea including Pluto
in the list of planets
and expanding the list to twelve.
They decide that two characteristics make a planet, while they ignore a
slew of others. Like one Virginia astronomer said, in 10 years we
could see 100 or more objects designated as "planets." What would be
the purpose of this?

60 doesn't seem so old looking from 42 (43 in less than a month, yikes!).

From a teaching perspective, I'm hoping for a sensible outcome

o four small terrestrial planets
o asteroids
o four gas giant planets
o Kuiper belt objects (icy bodies)
o comets and other debris

Seems reasonable to me. Some just can't see demoting Pluto. Maybe it messes up a mnemonic they learned as a kid, or it's a Disney thing. Silly really.

By the definition I read, a planet/satellite system has its barycenter within the planet's surface. Pluto and Charon are "double planets" because their barycenter is outside of both bodies. The Sun/Jovian barycenter is above the Sun's surface. Does this mean Jupiter will be more than just a planet? Or will they ignore this inconsistency?


Shawn

The location of the solar system barycenter is continuously changing
with that planetary patterns... interesting!

.

Relevant Pages

  • New Horizons Update - September 2005
    ... spaceship to Pluto. ... we were taught that our solar system ... contains four rocky planets on the inside, ... Neptune on a retrograde orbit that is the hallmark of gravitational ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Re: "Pluto Now Called a Plutoid"
    ... orbit if there are no orbits intersecting it that are greater in mass than Ceres." ... If you include moons in consideration the first definition eliminates Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris. ... In the second definition Pluto and Eris are sometimes planets and sometimes non-planets depending on how the other large Kuiper belt objects are arranged on any given day. ... The fundamental point here, which you're skipping over, is the IAU has never said what they mean. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.science)
  • Re: "Pluto Now Called a Plutoid"
    ... If you include moons in consideration the first definition eliminates Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris. ... The second eliminates every candidate _except_ Eris, and even then Eris may sometimes temporarily lose planethood when other large Kuiper belt objects pass near it. ... In the second definition Pluto and Eris are sometimes planets and sometimes non-planets depending on how the other large Kuiper belt objects are arranged on any given day. ... Ceres itself is also sometimes a planet and sometimes not depending on where it is in its orbit relative to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.science)
  • Re: Mercury Movies?
    ... several with Jupiter, a couple with Saturn, and even one ... anything more than just mention Mercury, Neptune, or Pluto (Pluto gets ... visit these planets? ... They deliberately skipped Mercury, and at the time of such a mission later in this century, Uranus and Neptune were way out of range. ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Widow of Tombaugh Shook Up by Decision
    ... Clyde Tombaugh was 24 when he discovered Pluto while working at Lowell ... the eight "classical planets" and lumped it in with two similarly ... Planetary astronomers at Lowell Observatory expressed disappointment. ... Murphy said Tombaugh's discovery was ahead of its time because it took ...
    (comp.dcom.telecom)
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