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Pluto - After Effects

 


just-in
Okay... Pluto is no longer a planet but what will the be after effects of this historical event.

The very first think coming into my mind is schools and kids.

American school teachers have a mnemonic for children to remember the order of the planets in the solar system.

It's My very energetic mother just served us nine pizzas, the first letter in each word representing the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto).

But after this event, they've had to change that to My very energetic mother just served us nachos.

Across the world, it seems, the overwhelming vote from school kids is to reinstate Pluto as a planet.

There's been a celestial coup and its ripples run right up to little Pluto, perched on the edge of the solar system 4.2 billion km away.

The king of the underworld, as the Greeks referred to Pluto, has been dethroned all because he couldn't pull his weight in the solar system.

But many fans of the tiniest planet will find it hard to let go of their favourite celestial body.

"Why have they taken away Pluto? We like it the most," asks my bro's son and he and his friends are also worried about their syllabus.

"What will they teach us now? Eight planets, or nine? We have always known the solar system as nine planets," said the young scientists

Affection for the tiniest

But it's not just the children who are getting emotional about Pluto's demotion.

"I remember when I used to speak about the solar system, I would explain the rest of the planets as huge celestial bodies, but with Pluto, it was always this tiny planet which I had a lot affection for.

"I think children feel attached to it because of the cartoon character also," said an Indian scientist in an interview.

But some children don't need to worry too much. Their teacher has decided to maintain the status quo.

"The status of planets is a bit ambiguous. Sometimes there are 12. Then there are nine and now eight. I'm going to go ahead teaching the syllabus like it is," said a teacher neighbouring us.

The international astronomical union's decision to remove Pluto from the planet lineup was done clinically and for well-researched scientific reasons.

But the opposition does not want to buy this argument. Their hearts have been broken.

I hope there is no another resolution coming up in very next or few years to confuse and raise questions about the theory of entire solar system ... Smile

-Justin
superk
I must say, I'm sure it was quite a tough decision.... but at the end of the day, I think they made the right decision and re-classifiy it... so a few text books... ok.. probably more then just a few texts, will be out of date for a while, well, atleast until the schools decide to buy new texts! Good on the scientist to stand up and declare that they were wrong.... I'm sure it wasn't a very easy decision to make!
Electricat
I used to use the mnemonic:
My Very Easy Methord Just Showed Us Nine Planets or
My Very Easy Mnemonic Just Summed Up Nine Planets

By now I don't need the Mnemonic any more... I just remember the order by heart...

Here are some mnemonics I've seen for the Pluto-less system:

My Very Energetic Mother Just Screamed Utter Nonsense
My Very Efficient Monkey Just Sorted Unused Napkins
My Very Easy Method Just Stopped Using Nine
My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Noodles
My Very Evil Mother Just Served Us Nothing
My Very Exotic Mistress Just Showed Up Naked

Enjoy!
japasco
I fyou think that in english, what happens in spanish!!!

Mi vieja torta marca justamente siempre un nuevo [deleted]

its very funny have new mnemonics.

I still got Pluto on my mind.
LeviticusMky
Just another asteroid.

Actually, it's interesting how forcefully people are attempting to hold on to pluto, the asteroid. Obviously by the classifications that we have set up for defining a planet, Pluto is not one, so we should just let it go.

Yet people are holding onto this for no real good reason aside from the fact that it is how they were brought up!

Some things are democratic, others aren't. Science just happens to be one of the things that does not work under a democratic model. If one scientist proved a theory wrong, no matter how many other un-informed people voted against the scientist, he/she would still be right.

Pluto is not a planet, and that's good. We all would do well to simply let it go.
GameFreak
This indeed will have a very drastic impact on the entire planet that we live on.

Imagine children in school. They'll be learning that there are 8 planets.

20 years from now, it will seem wuite normal to have 8 planets in our solar system. Yet, now, doesn't it seem a bit weird calling Pluto a heavenly body which is not a planet? Doesn't it seem odd saying that there are just 8 planets?

Who knows what it'll be like in the future. Who knows whether there'll be 20 planets or 5?! Who knows if mankind will survive or not. The ambiguousness of everything just increases as we move on.
largelyobscure

So what actually is the 'new' definition of what is a planet and what likelihood is for these specifications to change? Additionally, what ever happened to that really far away body they were considering calling a planet .. UN.. something like that.. Anyway, just a few weeks ago they wanted to call it a planet and Pluto's moon and an asteroid? It's just odd in my mind that there wasn't more consensus about such things in the scientific community, particularly in the same field, on such a thing so elemental as the number of planets within the home solar system and the qualifications that determine the status of the celestial bodies within same said...

What was the name of that ''Furthest object'' in the solar system and what is it to be classified as, under these most recent qualifications?

Electricat
Quote:
The final definition, as passed on 24 August 2006 is: [30][31]

2006 redefinition of planet
The IAU...resolves that planets and other bodies in our Solar System be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:

(1) A "planet" [1] is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

(2) A "dwarf planet" is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape [2], (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.

(3) All other objects [3] except satellites orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar System Bodies".

Footnotes:

[1] The eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
[2] An IAU process will be established to assign borderline objects into either "dwarf planet" and other categories.
[3] These currently include most of the Solar System asteroids, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), comets, and other small bodies.

The IAU further resolves:

Pluto is a "dwarf planet" by the above definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects.



The name of the body you are thinking of may have been one of the following (ordered by distance):

Ceres
2003 UB313 ("Xena")
Sedna
largelyobscure
2003 UB313 ("Xena") was the body that I was thinking of.
Thanks
Electricat
Glad to have been of service Very Happy
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