The word 'planet' has an etymology older than modern astronomy, and though the definition is imprecise, that's ok. A small group of men in wigs and white robes does not own the word "planet", we the people do.
They should have invented their own word. I for one refuse to accept their authoritarian equivocation. Will you join the revolt and take back that which rightfully belongs to us all?
2006-08-25 02:46:14 · 7 answers · asked by lenny 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
CubicMoo, I don't recall electing them. Do you? Yes, definitions do change, but colloquial language belongs to us all, not to a small group of self appointed authorities. Don't you agree they could have invented a new word to go along with their new definition? What they did is Orwellian doublespeak; redefine language on the fly to confuse people into submission.
2006-08-26 09:39:10 · update #1
REVOLUTION!! Pluto IS a planet! Yes, it has a strange orbit! However, its composition, although off, we have found a "icy super earth," an earth like planet 2x the size of earth, that are supposivly just like pluto! It has an atmosphere, yes, and It has more moons than any rocky body in the solar system! 3 MOONS!!! 3!!! MOONS!!! More than us, more than mars! Pluto still is a planet in my book! Xena will remain a planet too to me (though I really think it should get rid off the nickname "Xena"...)
2006-08-25 03:25:42 · answer #1 · answered by iam"A"godofsheep 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Please people, listen. Yes, Pluto has a funny orbit, but that's not the point. The strange orbit tells astronomers that it was not created along with the other eight planets (that and the fact that it's a terrestrial planet outside the orbit of the gas giants). The definition of planet is now an object that has been formed along with the star it orbits around.
Nowhere is it written that definitions cannot change. People are the ones that created these definitions, therefore people can change them. The only different here is that the people who decided on this were a select few that know a hell of a lot more about astronomy than you do. This is how the world works. We don't hold referendums for every political issue, you elect representatives to deal with it. This has nothing to do with owning a word.
Besides, Pluto has only been a planet since 1930. Many people have grandparents older than that.
2006-08-25 23:37:22 · answer #2 · answered by CubicMoo 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Get over yourself and check out the history of astronomy. There are a couple of celestial bodies that were classified as planets and then reclassified. It's not like the world's going to end because we have 8 planets in the solar system...
2006-08-25 09:49:31 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Right on! Save Ceres too. Ceres was a planet in 1801 and those bad guys demoted it to asteroid just because a few dozen, er.. hundred.., er thousand, er... tens of thousands more smaller ones were discovered. We want our thousands of planets back!
2006-08-25 09:50:27 · answer #4 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I totally agree with you Pluto is still a planet .
2006-08-25 09:53:45 · answer #5 · answered by Indie 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They should probably leave it as is, just cuz all of the books that will need to be reprinted...then again, everything is always changing...
2006-08-25 09:54:37 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
your point is???
who cares, it's still there.
2006-08-25 09:53:06 · answer #7 · answered by surfing_intern 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋