You want a dwarf planet? You should see the dwarf planet I gave your MOM! (wait, what did I just say?)
I was reading my friends bit on Pluto's demotion from planet to dwarf planet (Shprintz-o-rama's article about Pluto) and I remember being sad when I read this this afternoon.
See I knew Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto, and he was this sweet old man (when I knew him). He helped me write a report about the planet over a phone interview. I knew his granddaughter from church. This is the astronomical equivalent of putting a star next to somebody's achievement in my book. Think Roger Maris's home run record.
Here is why:
There are nine planets... errr... were nine planets. There are -- to quote Carl Sagan -- billions and billions of other heavenly bodies. A planet is something special. It is a neighbor in our section of the galaxy; someplace that we can reach in a reasonable amount of time, astronomically speaking of course. The science behind what constitutes a planet now has changed a little bit and we are, through increasing technology, realizing that even our little stretch of the block has more going on than maybe even we realized. I have heard buzz about the other objects, Xena, Charon and Ceres for about 7 to 10 years in some cases but they are numbers, and most people don't know what the numbers mean. Now I know that to most people Pluto is still going to be Pluto and won't be turned into something as ludicrous as 1930 UB300, but it still won't be a planet.
I am not trying to stir up a shit pot here and I am all for science changing to fit technology but at some point isn't there a little sanity involved? It is no wonder most of the people in the world don't give a shit about science. The difference between a planet and a dwarf planet is apparently 90km and about 1,000 tons. It just seems a little trivial and this is one of those situations where astronomers had the opportunity to make a vote on something that isn't that important and then turned around and shit all over it. Because you know what, in elementary school, when you learn the planets that is the only time it sticks. If you take astronomy in college (which I did) you can be pretty much certain that the kids are either trying to fill a science requirement or they heard that if you can get a chick to the observatory and say one smart thing about what you are looking at it increases your chances of getting some (maybe it is a little from column a and a little from column b).
See I knew Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto, and he was this sweet old man (when I knew him). He helped me write a report about the planet over a phone interview. I knew his granddaughter from church. This is the astronomical equivalent of putting a star next to somebody's achievement in my book. Think Roger Maris's home run record.
Here is why:
There are nine planets... errr... were nine planets. There are -- to quote Carl Sagan -- billions and billions of other heavenly bodies. A planet is something special. It is a neighbor in our section of the galaxy; someplace that we can reach in a reasonable amount of time, astronomically speaking of course. The science behind what constitutes a planet now has changed a little bit and we are, through increasing technology, realizing that even our little stretch of the block has more going on than maybe even we realized. I have heard buzz about the other objects, Xena, Charon and Ceres for about 7 to 10 years in some cases but they are numbers, and most people don't know what the numbers mean. Now I know that to most people Pluto is still going to be Pluto and won't be turned into something as ludicrous as 1930 UB300, but it still won't be a planet.
I am not trying to stir up a shit pot here and I am all for science changing to fit technology but at some point isn't there a little sanity involved? It is no wonder most of the people in the world don't give a shit about science. The difference between a planet and a dwarf planet is apparently 90km and about 1,000 tons. It just seems a little trivial and this is one of those situations where astronomers had the opportunity to make a vote on something that isn't that important and then turned around and shit all over it. Because you know what, in elementary school, when you learn the planets that is the only time it sticks. If you take astronomy in college (which I did) you can be pretty much certain that the kids are either trying to fill a science requirement or they heard that if you can get a chick to the observatory and say one smart thing about what you are looking at it increases your chances of getting some (maybe it is a little from column a and a little from column b).
posted by V. at 11:01 PM
2 Comments:
I think they should grandfather in anything that has been generally accepted for years and years to be a planet. As Adam mentioned, what the hell kind of pneumatic device are we going to use now? We'll have to rewrite MVEMJSUNP. Hmmmm, let's see ..... how about Most Very Exciting Movies Jam Showcases Until Noon.
Nah. Kids'll never remember that. Better to just keep Pluto a planet. Tell the rest of the dwarf planets to suck it, they should have been visible in the 20th century ... but we're attached to Pluto now!
We have history with Pluto now.
This is the equivalent of Tom Cruise having his marriage to Nicole Kidman demoted to an engagement, or even worse changed to a serious relationship.
We as a race, have been dating Pluto for sometime and it just doesn't seem right.
Post a Comment
<< Home