Re: Likeliness of Pluto discovery

From: Anthony Buckland (buckland_at_direct.ca)
Date: 02/26/05 

Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 10:20:33 -0800

robert j. kolker wrote:

>
>
> doktorf wrote:
>
>> It would have gone a long way toward establishing them as a seperate
>> class of objects before any assumptions about their being planets could
>> develop.
>
>
> The classification of Pluto as a planet was probably a mistake (but
> who knew at the time?), and we are stuck with it now. Well, we have
> Pluto. How soon will we have Mickey, Goofey and Donald?
>
> Bob Kolker

About the same time we discover that they were in the Roman pantheon :)

For the last few years, I've been regarding Pluto and its satellite as
binary planets,
the only known ones in our system (Earth-Moon doesn't count since the center
of gravity is within Earth).

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Likeliness of Pluto discovery
    ... doktorf wrote: ... > It would have gone a long way toward establishing them as a seperate ... > class of objects before any assumptions about their being planets could ... Well, we have Pluto. ...
    (sci.astro)
  • 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: Hey Mr. Hyde!
    ... Some other things to note about Pluto: ... It's moon, Charon, doesn't exactly orbit Pluto so much as BOTH ... Very near the Sun (in the vicinity of the ... inner 4 planets, for instance) it would likely be difficult for a ...
    (alt.lang.asm)