Poll: Pluto, is it still a planet?

[lacktheknack]

i should know this, witha qualification in astronomy >-<.I think its at least a Dwarf Planet, but a planet none the less. Well what do you class as a planet. I class something a planet if it has a celestial body in its orbit. Except stars, cuz i know they're not planets.

It doesn't work that way. A planet is a celestial body that has taken control of its orbit around a star (see my other post). Pluto is only a dwarf planet, not a major one.

And a dwarf planet is not the same as a major planet. There are thousands/millions of dwarf planets.

I'm well aware of that, thats why I said thats what "I" class as a planet.

...What was that qualification you were talking about?

 

[DragonBorn96]

i should know this, witha qualification in astronomy >-<.I think its at least a Dwarf Planet, but a planet none the less. Well what do you class as a planet. I class something a planet if it has a celestial body in its orbit. Except stars, cuz i know they're not planets.

It doesn't work that way. A planet is a celestial body that has taken control of its orbit around a star (see my other post). Pluto is only a dwarf planet, not a major one.

And a dwarf planet is not the same as a major planet. There are thousands/millions of dwarf planets.

I'm well aware of that, thats why I said thats what "I" class as a planet.

...What was that qualification you were talking about?

An astronomy qualification. Why?

 

[lacktheknack]

i should know this, witha qualification in astronomy >-<.I think its at least a Dwarf Planet, but a planet none the less. Well what do you class as a planet. I class something a planet if it has a celestial body in its orbit. Except stars, cuz i know they're not planets.

It doesn't work that way. A planet is a celestial body that has taken control of its orbit around a star (see my other post). Pluto is only a dwarf planet, not a major one.

And a dwarf planet is not the same as a major planet. There are thousands/millions of dwarf planets.

I'm well aware of that, thats why I said thats what "I" class as a planet.

...What was that qualification you were talking about?

An astronomy qualification. Why?

How very vague.

Which qualification? By who? For what? I'm actually curious.

 

[serenityzero]

Pluto is no longer a planet no matter how anyone "feels" about it. It's not a matter of debate when the definition of a planet has been changed. If mammals somehow no longer included cats for some very good reason and the definition of a mammal precluded that possibility, then no cats would be mammals despite anyone's opinion or sentiment. Pluto is no longer a planet.

Or conversely, we might think of it this way. Instead of arguing that Pluto is still a planet, perhaps you should be arguing that Eris and Ceres ARE planets, as they are now all classified as the same. Since I doubt anyone would because they have no attachment to Eris and Ceres as "planets," the argument is defeated from the other end as well.

 

[DragonBorn96]

i should know this, witha qualification in astronomy >-<.I think its at least a Dwarf Planet, but a planet none the less. Well what do you class as a planet. I class something a planet if it has a celestial body in its orbit. Except stars, cuz i know they're not planets.

It doesn't work that way. A planet is a celestial body that has taken control of its orbit around a star (see my other post). Pluto is only a dwarf planet, not a major one.

And a dwarf planet is not the same as a major planet. There are thousands/millions of dwarf planets.

I'm well aware of that, thats why I said thats what "I" class as a planet.

...What was that qualification you were talking about?

An astronomy qualification. Why?

How very vague.

Which qualification? By who? For what? I'm actually curious.

Astronomy in general, we covered Stars,Magnitude,PLanets,Moons, the colour spectrum linking with radiation aswell as magnitude. We did a week on the Sun including things like features and it nuclear fusion. Quite a lot. Also some history on famous astronomers.

 

[Emissary Laito]

I do have one, a teacher selected the top students in science at the time. This was at the start of my Year 9. We went through it for a year, for it was proper course, coursework and all. Took my exam July of last year, passed with a B and became the youngest person in our school ever to achieve a qualification in Astronomy ^-^ Edit: This was meant to be quoted to the post above me

Was going to google-search you to find out if that was true, but I cant be bothered now. There's like 97 schools in your city >.>

What was it anyway? GCSE?

 

[DragonBorn96]

I do have one, a teacher selected the top students in science at the time. This was at the start of my Year 9. We went through it for a year, for it was proper course, coursework and all. Took my exam July of last year, passed with a B and became the youngest person in our school ever to achieve a qualification in Astronomy ^-^ Edit: This was meant to be quoted to the post above me

Was going to google-search you to find out if that was true, but I cant be bothered now. There's like 97 schools in your city >.>

What was it anyway? GCSE?

A Gcse course, apparentely according to our teacher, the hardest course to take.

 

[icyneesan]

I really don't care but if I had to pick I'd say No just because I know it will upset more people :3

 

[BRex21]

Okay, this its not a planet its a dwarf planet thing makes sense, but only if you really know about astronomy, and in our education system Pluto should still be considered a planet.
What they dont tell you is that it is part of an asteroid belt meaning it does not meet all the qualifications of a planet.
however it only fails to qualify because of the things around it and i say that this is racist, so i vote yes, Pluto is still a planet.

So kids should be taught incorrectly?

Man, the education system is bad enough already >.>

And if it was a planet, it would have cleared away all the things around it. So... more a case of losing its status because its incompetent then because of racism

;-]

I'm sorry, i worded that badly, How our education system teaches astronomy, Pluto still should qualify as a planet. We don't ever hear about Eris or Orcus and we dont hear about any sort of asteroid field other than between Mars and Jupiter. Based on what we would learn in highschool Pluto is a planet.
I personally think that the "dwarf planet" classification is pointlessly complicated as it isn't a dwarf planet because its smaller than other planets its a dwarf planet because there is other junk around it, meaning if there were a few nice sized rocks in earths orbit, that didn't contact our gravitational field, we wouldn't qualify as a planet either.

 

[Emissary Laito]

A Gcse course, apparentely according to our teacher, the hardest course to take.

I apparently cant leave this be. Damn my curiosity. x.x
Which school do you go to?

 

[blankedboy]

It's a planet just as much as the other 4-6 or whatever dwarf planets lying around are.
Speaking of which, CERES IS THE BEST PLANET EVER AND NASA NEED TO STOP DOING FUCKING WEATHER REPORTS AND SEND A PROBE THERE ALREADY

 

[phatty500]

hey they told me all through elementary school that its a planet. in my opinion they're not allowed to just change their mind.

 

[Dexiro]

Why are people so unwilling to accept that Pluto might not be a planet anymore? It's not as though it affects your life in any way, and "it's what I learnt when I was a kid" doesn't cut it. Infact if you're using logic like that you need to punch yourself a few times.

Wikipedia tells me that it's classified as a dwarf planet, a binary planet or maybe a kuiper belt object.

Whatever it is it falls under the same category as these other 7 planets:

I thought that image was quite interesting :3

 

[DragonBorn96]

A Gcse course, apparentely according to our teacher, the hardest course to take.

I apparently cant leave this be. Damn my curiosity. x.x
Which school do you go to?

Our school is now called Torbridge High. We just got a whole new name and building.

 

[Stammer]

HOLD EVERYTHING!!!!

There's a planet called "Makemake"? lmao

 

[Adam Young]

Pluto is a fifth the size of the moon, other objects, which are currently not considered planets, would need to gain planet "status" if Pluto were and planet...and there are quite a few Pluto-sized objects out there. Also, it hasn't cleared it's orbit, and appears to be a captured ball of mostly ice.

NOT. A. PLANET.

 

[Emissary Laito]

I'm sorry, i worded that badly, How our education system teaches astronomy, Pluto still should qualify as a planet. We don't ever hear about Eris or Orcus and we dont hear about any sort of asteroid field other than between Mars and Jupiter. Based on what we would learn in highschool Pluto is a planet.

So... it should be a planet because people are taught wrongly?

I personally think that the "dwarf planet" classification is pointlessly complicated as it isn't a dwarf planet because its smaller than other planets its a dwarf planet because there is other junk around it, meaning if there were a few nice sized rocks in earths orbit, that didn't contact our gravitational field, we wouldn't qualify as a planet either.

But if there were any, they'd have been wiped out long ago. The solar system isn't new, the Earth has had plenty of time to crash into any of them. If they're outside our gravitational range... well then, they're not really in our orbit are they?

 

[orc1231515]

I think in opposite of this statement. It is a giant land mass orbiting our sun that is capable at times of having its own atmosphere.

so comets are planets two then? they orbit the sun, are gigantic and have there own atmospheres(albeit one that trails behind).

 

[orc1231515]

Sure, why not? Part of my point is asking what does it matter? Is there really any difference between considering all of them to be planets and considering none of them to be planets?

If it doesn't matter to you, then why do you care about the change. It'd be more accurate, and that at least has high importance in the scientific community. Surely you're not arguing that knowledge is unnecessary.

I don't care about the change. Call it a planet or don't call it a planet, the fact that this debate has been going on for so long is what annoys me. This isn't a case of gaining new knowledge either, it is simply re-categorizing Pluto. We haven't learned anything new about Pluto or the land masses that are similar to Pluto by giving them a new classification now have we?

So you think having an accurate classification of what exactly "planet" Means is unimportant? Look, it may not cure cancer, but it's still very important to the astronomer community. (Many of whom have never really considered pluto an actual "planet". the IAU conference just made it official)

Anyway, most of the "debate" has come from the uninformed masses whining about their favorite planet being kick out of the club.

So I have to ask, why was it a planet to begin with if so many more simmilar rocks were floating out there too, why was it so much more special then all the other giant rocks ?

it was the first and only "planet" discoverd solely by NASA(the other planets where discoverd in europe and ancient world(greece, egypth etc.) and discovering a planet sounds a lot more important then discovering a random piece of rock.

 

[BRex21]

I'm sorry, i worded that badly, How our education system teaches astronomy, Pluto still should qualify as a planet. We don't ever hear about Eris or Orcus and we dont hear about any sort of asteroid field other than between Mars and Jupiter. Based on what we would learn in highschool Pluto is a planet.

So... it should be a planet because people are taught wrongly?

I personally think that the "dwarf planet" classification is pointlessly complicated as it isn't a dwarf planet because its smaller than other planets its a dwarf planet because there is other junk around it, meaning if there were a few nice sized rocks in earths orbit, that didn't contact our gravitational field, we wouldn't qualify as a planet either.

But if there were any, they'd have been wiped out long ago. The solar system isn't new, the Earth has had plenty of time to crash into any of them. If they're outside our gravitational range... well then, they're not really in our orbit are they?

Not necessarily, plenty of bodies in our solar system occupy the same orbital path but don't encounter each other because they also move at the same speed including the objects in Pluto's orbital path that disqualify it from being a planet. This is rare because of the relatively large amount of coincident required to align objects the size of a planet, but its in no way impossible to assume that somewhere earth sized planets could be forced to loose their title because some jerks in 2005 made a decision that planets cant share their orbit. The most popular definition before that, and many argued after is, a planet is any object in orbit around the Sun with a diameter greater than 1250 miles or 2000 kilometers. so Pluto was a planet up until 2005 and it didnt change for any scientific reason, we just decided.