# Losing Pluto?



## dwndrgn (Sep 13, 2005)

Great article:http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/13/DDGRQE2S5V1.DTL


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 13, 2005)

Good article.


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 14, 2005)

Thanks for that, dwndrgn.  Jon Carroll is one of my favorite columnists.


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## ommigosh (Sep 28, 2005)

What an entertaining writer!  Interesting subject too - did I pick it up right that respectable astronomers are so perturbed by unrespectable trends in planet-naming  that they are going to declassify Pluto and anything beyond in an effort to stop any silliness creeping into their professional domain?


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## chrispenycate (Nov 5, 2005)

Pluto deserves to be declassified- its orbit is hopeless, doesn't repect Bode, probably wasn't even condensed fom the solar system disc- thumping great comet with a moon-

*grumbles off into the considerable distance*


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## Rosemary (Nov 7, 2005)

chrispenycate said:
			
		

> Pluto deserves to be declassified- its orbit is hopeless, doesn't repect Bode, probably wasn't even condensed fom the solar system disc- thumping great comet with a moon-
> 
> *grumbles off into the considerable distance*


I read an article which stated that they have just discovered that Pluto has two more moons than previously thought.  So, there are two more reasons why Pluto should not be declassified...


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## DJ_Schumi (Feb 8, 2006)

Pluto with either 1, 2 or more moons is deservely a planet. After all we have only one moon, Mercury and Venus have none so why not?

Boundaries though should be considered and planetary classification shouldn't be up to the question "Can our children learn them?". 

I believe a celestrial object in the Solar System larger than Pluto should be considered as a planet.


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## kyektulu (Feb 8, 2006)

*I really enjoyed reading this article, thanks for posting it.*


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## Adasunshine (Feb 9, 2006)

Thank you Dwndrgn - very entertaining and extremely interesting, I'm of the opinion that Pluto should remain a planet and the other 'rocks' that have been named should be completely renamed, Easterbunny and Santa, I ask you???

I shall be looking for further articles by Mr Carroll - he sounds right up my street! 

xx


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## Jim Colyer (Nov 2, 2006)

Pluto deserves to remain a planet for the sake of tradition if nothing else.


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## Talysia (Nov 8, 2006)

In all honesty, I think Pluto should remain a planet.  However, I think that people will eventually come to call it what it is, much in the same way that people have changed their way of thinking about imperial measures and metric.


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## Paige Turner (Nov 8, 2006)

Hah. Forget Pluto. It won't even observe the ecliptic. I say; If you're not with us, you're against us.


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## HoopyFrood (Nov 8, 2006)

Jim Colyer said:


> Pluto deserves to remain a planet for the sake of tradition if nothing else.


 
Ah, but if we did that all the time, we'd still be thinking that the earth is the centre of the solar system..."The sun's the centre"..."Really? Well, never mind...let's just stick with tradition and say earth is!"


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## The Ace (Nov 9, 2006)

If there are more planets out there than the original 9, great.  But why not add to them instead of picking on Pluto for bending the rules ? Pluto is a planet, it's not as if there's a limit.


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## j d worthington (Nov 9, 2006)

The Ace said:


> If there are more planets out there than the original 9, great. But why not add to them instead of picking on Pluto for bending the rules ? Pluto is a planet, it's not as if there's a limit.


 
Well, actually, that's the point.... there _is_ a limit, now. Anything under a certain size no longer counts as a planet, but as one of various other kinds of bodies.... Much as I hate to see Pluto go (and I _really_ hate to see it go), at least now, for the first time, there's actually been a working definition decided on, so this shouldn't happen in the future....


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## carrie221 (Nov 9, 2006)

*sob* It is a planet that is what I learned when I was a little girl and it will always be a planet and i don't care what anyone says...


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