Well, I just read that the solar system is a little emptier today. We only have 8 planets. Yup, Pluto is no longer a planet. Demonted in the prime of its life. It's kind of like Disney's Pluto, you don't really know what it is. Pluto (the ... ex-planet) has an orbit around the sun. An "eccentric" orbit, but an orbit. In my thouroughly shabby review of these reasons, it's too small. And maybe it is, but at what point is something too small to be a planet. As pointed out in the 2nd of 2 articles I read on this (the first being in my cell phone, nothing but high quality research here my friends, this one is here), that astronomers are having this debate. The most brilliant in the field, ones who come up with quantum theory etc, locate "planets?" by their wobble effect etc, and they don't know what a planet is!!! Cripes!!! It just goes to prove a point, the more educated we are, the less we actually "know". You ask a grad 7 kid what a planet is, and they'll probably tell you a good answer, something that revolves around the sun, more technically, a body which has a circular (or elliptical as the case may be) orbit around a star. Now you ask an astronomer what a planet is, you get years of debate and upheaval in the scientific community. Ya sure, there are likely many other details about the term "body" so let's make it, a celestial body whose orbit has at its centre a star, and has a mass permitting it's own gravitational field, and is not a comet.
There. I've done it!!! Pluto has it's own gravitational field, and it orbits the sun. So it's a planet. Why didn't they invite me to thier meeting in Prague? I would have come.
So to re-iterate the new definition of a planet, as decided by me, and to be adopted by all, is:
PLANET: any and all celestial bodies possessing their own gravitational field and whose orbit has at its centre a star, and is not a comet.
As an adjunct to this, it should be noted that should there be any confusion or discrepency, I should outright be asked to make the call.
Now for the "Hopefull" portion of todays blog title.
Today, Schapelle (previous post regarding my feelings on this issue is here: Another Wasted Effort: Indonesia... A little more...) gets to go to court for her final appeals process to be acquited of the offense (News article). If she is denied, her only recourse to result in a her being set free, is to ask the Indonesian President for clemency, but this carries the burdon that she has to say that she is guilty. A difficult thing to do, especially for someone who has gone this many years and has been so steadfastly insisting her innocence.
I would like to give Schapelle Corby my best wishes, and that I hope to have her back home in Australia before Christmas.
Good Luck today.
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6 comments:
That whole planet demoting thing is worrisome-- because it's too small-- oh,oh, this could open up a can of worms-- all things too small suddenly do not exist-- I guess size DOES matter!!
But didn't they just discover another planet beyond uranus-- no pun intended-- love you -
I heard that the discovery of the new planets is what caused the contorversy and the re-defining of what makes a planet... I heard that they either had to add all the others or take away pluto so they decided that Pluto was out, to reduce the possibility of getting out of control with new additions... I thought I heard something about how Pluto crosses the orbit of neptune so they said that for that reason it was different than the others... But I didn't really pay much attention to that report... I was still waking up during the morning news...
LOL!
G.
Alright I think the astronomers that have come up with thtis need a 2X4 taken to the head...are they freakin' nuts?
Come on...
And doesn't it stand to reason that there are more planets out there? Hello this is just our little corner of space and time...there is so much out there that they are yet to explore and see...It's like saying we are alone n the Universe..I would hate to think that we are the only planet with semi-intelligent life on it..keep looking above and beyond things and don't cut our little corner into smaller or pieces by demoting a planet of all things...
Ya,G, I think you're right. I was going to say something like that, that it was either add the others, or kick Pluto out... Pluto being included as a planet meant that our solar system will have add the new planets found past Pluto, which as I understood, were part of the reason for Pluto's eccentric orbit (other planet's pulling Pluto one way while the sun pulls it the other). Similar to what kicking-and-singing said though, I think that it is entirely arrogant to think that even our own solar system as has been defined for decades is abosolute. Why can't there be other planets in this system? The further out you go, the harder it is to see a planet, let alone its full orbit.
I didn't say all that last week for the simple reason that my literature review was calling me!!!
Cheers my loyal followers!!!
Like you guys are saying- watch in 20 years with new even more high powered telescopes in space, we will find so much more beyond our current reach... our kids and kids' kids will probably laugh at us for thinking that this was all there was... the same we laugh at those who used to honestly, whole heartedly believe that the earth was flat! hehehe
Hope the last few chapters are coming along well Dr. PhD...
G.
Hey, NorthernLights..you mean to say, the earth isn't flat??? Hahahaha.
Mike, I read your blogs, but I not literate enought to comment on them. But they make me laugh..and I'm with you. Your definition of a planet is definitely the correct one. And, just think, if they add a whole bunch of new planets, how are we going to remember the order of them from the sun?
We used to have a rhyme for it..starting Man Very Early Made....whatever!
That's for Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury...or maybe it's the other way around..
Now you see why I don't respond to your blogs very often..hahahahaha..But I sure do enjoy them. Love, Aunt Marsha
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