Why Pluto?

Question

Scientist have now declared that Pluto is not a planet. What's next? Any adult that isn't more then 4'10" is not human. We need to make a stand now or all will be lost. Just because you're not what is consider normal, does that mean that we should be banished. It's the raindeer games and Ruldoph all over again. Now is the time to stand for the different guy!

Answer 1

Yep. Pluto wasn't quite big enough to be a planet.... And it was the only planet discovered by an American, too. Who makes all these decisions, anyway?

Answer 2

Why are people upset about a redefinition?

It is because they felt betrayed? Being told that Pluto was a planet as a child and faithfully believing the Scientists and now, being told without any apology that everyone has been mislead?

A simple redefinition is opening a can of worms. Do Scientists actually care about people's perception on what they as experts tell them? It seems the death of Pluto as a planet may come back to haunt the Scientists.

Answer 3

"I'm embarassed for astronomy," said Alan Stern, leader of NASA's New Horizon's mission to Pluto and a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute. "Less than 5 percent of the world's astronomers voted."

Stern called it "absurd" that only 424 astronomers were allowed to vote, out of some 10,000 professional astronomers around the globe.

"It won't stand," he said. "It's a farce."

Stern said astronomers are already circulating a petition that would try to overturn the IAU decision.

Owen Gingerich, historian and astronomer emeritus at Harvard who led the committee that proposed the initial definition, called the new definition "confusing and unfortunate" and said he was "not at all pleased" with the language about clearing the neighborhood.

Gingerich also did not like the term "dwarf" planet.

"I thought that it made a curious linguistic contradiction," Gingerich said in a telephone interview from Boston (where he could not vote). "A dwarf planet is not a planet. I thought that was very awkward."

Let's fight for the little guy, whether small in stature or small in status!

Answer 4

Pluto has always been different, Its composition is like a comet's, and its elliptical orbit is tilted 17 degrees from the orbits of the other planets.

Answer 5

I agree with all the answers given by our friends, And I want to say that Pluto is now revolving the sun in the Neptunes orbit. Thats why they said that.........

Answer 6

Like they say, science is always evolving. They have been debating Pluto's status since 1930. I am surprised it took THIS long to be honest.

Answer 7

Well, you know, the smallest are always the ones getting picked on! Actually, they discovered it was more like an iceberg or something like that....not a planet.

Answer 8

who cares, there r too many questions asking the same thing now.

Answer 9

I agree

Answer 10

Maybe