Why do people care so much that Pluto isn't a planet!?

Question

So what people? Does Pluto not being a planet make it any less habitable? Any less likely to support life? Jupiter's a planet. Does that mean that humans can one day live there?

Answer 1

your right ...WHO CARES.

Answer 2

Some people have no purpose in life without some cause to give their existence the fantasy of meaning. Any cause will do. A day without something to protest is like a day without sunshine.

I think people getting passionate over Pluto is a bit excessive.

Scientists, however, feel that they have a need to give a formal definition to what constitutes a planet. This is primarily due to the multitude of new objects being discovered all the time that have all sorts of strange new and inconsistent characteristics that blur the distinction more and more. They're trying to clarify the concept so all current and future planetoid bodies fit into a more clearly defined category.

But, I think a few surprises are in store, since all the contingencies they are referring to cannot be measured or proven in all the distant, remote objects they intend to classify.

I understand their position, but I doubt that most non-scientific people will see it in the same context. The biggest issue to them seems to be the sudden change in what they have been used to for some three generations and taught at all levels of education.

Regardless of whether the number of defined planets changed to more or less, there would still be people jumping up and down in heated protest over it.

Answer 3

First, being a planet has nothing to do with supporting life. Earth is the only planet that can support life in the solar system. The heat and atmosphere on Mercury and Venus (often called our sister planet) won't ever be capable of supporting live. We could potentially live on Mars or maybe one of the moons of Mars but unless there is a huge breakthrough in the field of terraforming it would be living out of a base, like a biosphere or the small lander we lived out of on the moon. And the gravity is much less on Mars and the moons and asteroids in the Sol system (our solar system, the sun is called Sol, i.e. solar) that it would cause atrophy in our bones and muscles. The gravity on Jupiter would crush a tank flatter than a sheet of paper.

Advancements in science are often made by breaking down problems and phenomona into smaller classifications and identifying trends and similarities. This is often arbitrary and filled with it's own problems. For example matter was first classified into Earth Fire Water and Air. Later a Russian scientist, Mendeelev classified matter into elements based on atomic mass and that is the basis for modern chemistry. Aristotle first classified animal life into Air, Land and Watter animals. Which seems pretty simple until you try to classify a frog or a duck. We could put all microscopic animals together but the differences we found that seperate viruses and bacteria have led to medical treatments that have saved thousands of lives.

The argument, as I understand it, from scientists who question whether Pluto is a planet is that if we classify planets according to the criteria that pluto meets (basically it's spherical, it orbits a star, and has a certian mass) would mean we would have to classify hundreds of bodies in our solar system (and other star systems) as planets.

Is that a big deal? Well I had to learn My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles to remember Mercury Venus Earth Mars Juperter Saturn Uranos Neptune Pluto and I don't want to learn a 100 work mnemonic to remember a series of planets that long.

But that's not really the reason. In science you often need to break down things that you are studying into small enough groups to find similarities and groups so we can see trends. Why is this important with our planets? I don't know for sure. A real astrophysisist could tell you but maybe some key to the origins of our solar system, galaxy, or univers lies in the subtle differences in Planets and other objects.

But for my money, Pluto will always be the ninth planet in the Sol system. Except when it's Uranos. Which happens.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

People care because it is a bedrock of their concept of reality. They were taught in school that there were 9 planets in our solar system, and for most people this is as unchangeable as the 12 months in the year or 60 minutes in an hour. (both of which are arbitrary, unwieldy, and in the case of the months simply wrong... there being thirteen moons in a year and month = moon)

Telling people that "well actually, Pluto is just a random chunk of rock and probably part of the Kuiper belt..." is akin to telling people that Luxembourg is actually part of Belgium. Worse, actually, as most people don't know **** about Luxembourg.

Besides, what are all the Scorpios gonna do now?

Admittedly, it is inconsequential whether it is a full fledged planet or this new category of "dwarf planet." It is still a cold and icy rock with a bizarre orbit. Still, it not being a planet might cause NASA and the ESA to not send a probe there like they were planning... who knows?

Answer 5

Calling it a planet for the last 76 years has that effect on people. They get setimental about something the last 3 or 4 generations learned about.

Answer 6

Had this debate not been in the news lately, how many people could have named it? Or any of the other planets? Now there's petitions from schoolkids. We need something to worry about?!

Answer 7

The intensity with which people argue about an issue is inversely proportional to the importance of the issue. There's no objective basis for that statement; it's just an anecdotal observation, but it certainly fits this situation.

Answer 8

The only reason it concerns me at all is trying to teach young kids why you can't call it a planet anymore. Children are going to be confused about this one! Otherwise, it doesn't really matter to me.

Answer 9

Lots of people still believe in astrology. In my opinion astrology is as outdated as the idea that the earth is flat, but many people think that with Pluto demoted, all their astrological charts are worthless (as if those charts weren't worthless in the first place.)

Answer 10

I for one am thrilled that Pluto has been demoted. It used to be a moon of Neptune, and it is smaller than many other moons in our system.

Answer 11

It changes nothing. But I guess kids at school would be happy to learn fewer planets...