On the demotion of Pluto

[amanuensis1]

I am so proud of our species.

We are scientists. We are able to assimilate new information about our universe and say, "When our new findings contradict earlier suppositions, we have to correct them. We have to admit we were wrong. There can be no, 'Oh, but we've allllways had nine planets! We gave Pluto a cool name, we like it and we can't just take it back now!' No sentimental pleas, no church of whatever breathing down our necks can make it be so just because the truth is regrettable, blasphemous, or just plain not as much fun."

And the other thing I love? That us selfsame scientists are all goin' home, looking at the glossy fold-out of "Our Solar System" that we tore out of National Geographic when we were kids and saved to this day, and we're running a fingertip over that last little blue-white body out at its periphery, and sighing. Maybe even sniffling a little.

Wonderful, darling species.

Comments

[florahart]

And if we are in Eugene, we are going OMG putting on the front page of our newspaper a picture of the Pluto in the gigantic miles-long 1:1 billion scale model and wondering what to do about it.

:D

[naatz.livejournal.com]

Pluto has only been a planet since 1930; if people got used to it being a planet, I guess they'd be able to get used to it not being a planet fairly quickly.

Personally, I'm not too excited about it. Never studied the planets and all.

|Meduza|

[melonaise.livejournal.com]

I was surprised the change was passed this easily, because Pluto was the only planet discovered by an American.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Your brain is very sexy. I love this take on it. :-)

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

But . . . it's Pluto! *weepz*

[ajat.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww, *pet pet*

[srichard.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. It's funny how riled up this has people, but it's just one of those things. An error was made, and we're correcting it, despite sentimentality, etc.

[ellipsisblack.livejournal.com]

You sound like the Doctor, you know. ;) I bet he's skipping and cackling at this Pluto thing. Humans! Brilliant, stupid, crazy, wonderful humans!!!

[ajat.livejournal.com]

How does it matter, reely ? These so-called scientists are only people, too ...

Frankly, most scientists are a bit of a joke these days. Only a very few are at all capable of really delving into thing, and then, being fully truthful about it.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

*sigh* You know, I'm a scientist by trade. And by nature. But to make a huge hoopla about what we're going to CALL a large rock billions of miles away that has NO significant effect on us... tell me that's a bit excessive? I mean, it's a rock. It's a big rock. It's a small planet. It's got a funky orbit. It is what it is! And it took thousands of scientists so much time and deliberation to decide what to CALL it. What are we paying them for again?

[melonaise.livejournal.com]

Astronomists do spend a lot of time catergorizing things because there's a limit on what direct experimentation they can do. A few hundred years ago, biology was all about differentiating species/genus/phyllum/etc.

Right now there's a lot of focus on the definition of a planet because there's a big push (with a lot of grant money behind it) towards finding planets outside this solar system. A team recently discovered what they're calling a "binary giant planet system" that lacks a sun, but I think it should really be called a binary brown dwarf system. But the team wants the planet-searching grant money, so... There's some need to have a clear-cut "test" for when to call an object a planet.

[incidental-fire.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is just wonderful. You've managed to capture exactly how I'm feeling about Pluto, the entire contradiction wrapped into one. Thanks for sharing. :)

[dorothy1901]

We are able to assimilate new information about our universe and say, "When our new findings contradict earlier suppositions, we have to correct them. We have to admit we were wrong.

Yes, yes, yes. Reclassifying things as we gain more knowledge of the universe is a good thing. Ptolemy and Copernicus, anyone?

[spoilage26.livejournal.com]

That us selfsame scientists are all goin' home, looking at the glossy fold-out of "Our Solar System" that we tore out of National Geographic when we were kids and saved to this day, and we're running a fingertip over that last little blue-white body out at its periphery, and sighing. Maybe even sniffling a little.

Awww, this is excatly how I felt. Pluto has always been my favourite planet, since I was eight.

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

Me. too. *sniff* *snorphle*

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Holst knew! I just bought a recording of The Planets, and damned if Holst didn't leave Pluto off the list. :)

[rowanrhys.livejournal.com]

Well, when Holst composed it, Pluto had not yet been discovered...

[sev1970.livejournal.com]

Timing on this is what is baffling. Only days before this announcement, scientists were saying there were other 'planets' that should be added to the nine we already have, and even as I don't know the exact definition used to be the measure of what constitutes a planet, I seem to recall them saying the definition seemed to be widening.

Then days later we hear Pluto has been demoted - a bit odd if you ask me, but there's been talk of declassifying Pluto for about two decades, so this is no surprise. Things change.

[tamerterra.livejournal.com]

That's why they've been having all the conferences - they needed to decide on the definition of a planet before they could make any decision about adding the other four vs dropping Pluto. (Pluto is in the same class as the new ones, IIRC)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

science = fandom. :)

[theexecutioner.livejournal.com]

Now Sailor Moon is totally fucked up! And I liked Sailor Pluto...

But now maybe they'll decide that Earth really isn't a plantet either.. It's just a bunch of gasses. Then, as soon as the world realizes it, everything will desolve and we'll all go hurtling through space. ^^

[tamerterra.livejournal.com]

The Moon isn't a planet either. ^_-

[mneomosyne.livejournal.com]

I'm quite confused, if you make a distinction between dwarf planets and other planets, how does that make Pluto not being a planet any more?

I read this at bbc http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5283956.stm (it makes the scientists look clumsy.) I don't mind Pluto being a planet or not, but scientists should agree on science. :/

Whatever they call it, it won't change Pluto anyway.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Well, the very nature of science is that you CAN challenge and disagree. If you couldn't, then it would be dogma or religion, and that's the last thing we need. Any principle, theory, or even "law" in science is open to question when advances in understanding, technology, and experience give us cause to question these things. And until proof is found, then scientists will disagree. It's actually a good thing.

[soralin.livejournal.com]

I'm proud of humans too. *tear*

I actually never considered Pluto a planet. It's just a stray meteor that floated by and our solar system decided to adopt it.

Still, it was nice adopting a ninth planet. It's like...disowning a member of the family now. ):

[belleamant.livejournal.com]

Still, it was nice adopting a ninth planet. It's like...disowning a member of the family now. ):

Precisely. I agree with you.

[noblerot.livejournal.com]

Poor Pluto. I feel like packing it a sack lunch with Oreo cookies and a thermos of Hawaiian Punch.

*wipes eyes*

Godspeed, little not-quite-a-planet. Remember to look both ways while crossing the galaxy.

[sharp-tongue.livejournal.com]

Oh, Amy, I adore you so.

[elsajeni.livejournal.com]

Does it make me seriously weird that I feel like de-planetizing Pluto is... is... mean?

[virginie-m.livejournal.com]

Well I have had a couple of glasses of red wine... but your thoughts on this strike me as absolutely lovely. Planets are such romantic things, and in a way, being unplaneted is like really brilliant angst. Tough, and unyeilding, and free of sentiment, but somehow it just breaks you.

[harvest-blue.livejournal.com]

It makes me sad that they demoted Pluto, though I understand the reasons behind it. But... but... but... there are 9 planets. Nine. "My very energetic mother just sent us nine pizzas."

It doesn't make sense anymore... bizarre.

~Harvest

[eskimosatan.livejournal.com]

No sentimental pleas, no church of whatever breathing down our necks can make it be so just because the truth is regrettable, blasphemous, or just plain not as much fun."

Just for that I'm starting the Church of Pluto and our main goal is going to be the revival of Pluto as a planet. I have no idea why, I can't even begin to imagine what our arguments will be. Maybe we'll just go with 'because' and we'll say in that whiny, hormon-driven voice that twelve-year-old girls use when they can't think of any other reason that they shuold get what they want. Yeah...

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Actually, the way Pluto was kicked off the Planet List was a bit dodgy. The new determining factor was ruled to be that a planet had to be able to keep the area around it clear of debris. However, Neptune, which is undeniably a planet, doesn't do that, so the anti-Pluto faction had to cobble up an exemption for Neptune by redesignating it as a "classical planet" -- when in fact the term "classical planet" was originally invented to refer to those planets and luminaries that were known prior to the invention of the telescope -- in other words, NOT Uranus or Neptune, which were both discovered by astronomers in the telescope era!

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

The main reason the anti-Plutoists wanted it off the Planet List was because it wasn't a nice rocky planet like Mercury, Venus, the Earth or Mars. So what? Neither are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune. (In fact, the first two are probably technically stars, since Jupiter at least gives off more energy than it receives from the Sun.)

[godlikepiro.livejournal.com]

"The new determining factor was ruled to be that a planet had to be able to keep the area around it clear of debris."-catherinecookmn
Awww..so..so Pluto had to clean his room up before he could go out and play with the other planets? And now he's grounded because he didn't do so..Dang, I'd be so teen angsting right now if I were Pluto. I'd be like "No one loves me anymore!!!I hate me!!"
Yes folks, Pluto is the cellestial emo.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing*