#pluto debate

Takin a Walk

Used my own pic I took as the background! :D

Dia is very passionate about space stuff and ruby doesn't really care all that much- but! She will try her best and listen when they infodump 😅

Extra doodle cuz I kinda like how ruby's pose looks without the baggy clothing-

“Well, if they can take it away, they can give it back right? I mean that’s why everyone our age and the millennials were ever upset about it, nostalgia over a pneumonic song.”

“Huh?”

It turned out she had thought Pluto had left the solar system. It had just floated off and stopped orbiting the sun, which I suppose could happen to a planet somewhere. The rest of us were given a moment to look at her and imagine our childhoods in 2006 learning that the ninth planet had left us instead of being reclassified through a democratic debate in the scientific community.

Those articles were commenting on a few smaller scientific communities that autonomically declared Pluto should be called a planet, but if you listen to anyone talk about Pluto during the New Horizons flyby the majority of scientists will still classify it as a dwarf planet, mostly because each one comes to the conclusion by asking and answering the question themselves with logic and reason, the way science and education should be done.

Most people argue Pluto’s status on size, which, while it does classify it as a dwarf planet, is not where the argument ends. Yes, calculations of Pluto’s size became lower and lower throughout the twentieth century, from the size of Earth, to Mars, to what we know now. Yes, there are moons bigger than Pluto, several. In fact, our moon is bigger than Pluto. The argument that if Pluto is a planet, the moon should be, however, is invalid because of their positions or roles in the solar system in relation to the sun. Pluto orbits the sun.

However, Pluto’s own moon, Charon, is not necessarily its moon at all. It is .125 the size of Pluto, in volume, .116, in mass, and .52 diametrically (that’s over half). To put that in perspective the moon is .02 of Earth, in volume, .012 in mass, and .2727 in diameter. In fact, Charon does not technically orbit Pluto, but Pluto and Charon both orbit a point, simultaneously orbiting the sun, outside of their surfaces, because of Charon’s pull on Pluto. While the classification has not been officially changed, it is for these reasons that the two objects can be considered a binary dwarf planetary system.

While Pluto’s size alone in relation to the other planets is not enough to declassify it, the nuances around its abnormality does provide more evidence. The eight planets can be easily classified into two groups (coincidentally equal ones). The two groups share many qualities determined by the formation of the solar system. The inner planets are smaller and have rocky surfaces while the outer planets are called gaseous giants. Pluto is the anomaly, being the “planet” furthest from the sun we should expect another gas giant, but it is a rocky asteroid smaller than any of the inner planets. However, in the video a mutual of mine posted that I shared on facebook of Colbert interviewing Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tyson explains that if we were to classify planets based on their relative sizes to each other or to Earth, Pluto could be a planet, as Pluto is only a fifth of the size of Earth while Jupiter is eleven times larger than Earth (radially). Two strange points brings us beyond just comparing objects to Earth, however. Like we said, Pluto does not fit the behavior of the other outer planets, in size or material. Secondly, there are other objects in the vicinity of Pluto that fit its characteristics as well, larger. These objects are asteroids of the Kuiper belt. 

Pluto would indeed make more sense, along with its orbiting moons, including Charon, classified as an asteroid of the Kuiper belt. It is not a gas giant; it is a asteroid that orbits in the beyond Neptune.

This path is so abnormal for a planet that its orbit is seventeen degrees, with the sun as an axis, off from the orbits of the eight planets, all relatively parallel with one another. In fact, two-dimensionally, it doesn’t form the same ellipse the others are. It’s orbit is so off that it actually crosses Neptune’s, meaning for part of Pluto’s year it would be the eight planet from the sun.

Ever since we discovered Pluto on 18 February 1930, we thought of it as the 9th planet in our solar system; at least until August 2006 when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided that in order for a planet to be a planet, it has to do 3 things

Orbit its star (√)

Be spherical or close to it (√)

Clear the space in which it orbits (X)

Unfortunately, Pluto is the second-largest object in the Kuiper Belt which is an asteroid belt on the outer edge of the solar system, and thus has not cleared most of the debris it would've needed to to become a planet.

Also notice that I said Pluto is only the second-largest object in the Kuiper Belt; the largest is actually Eris, a dwarf planet about 27% larger than Pluto. So people would argue that if Pluto is a planet, so should Eris. In fact, there are several other celestial bodies in the solar system that are comparable in size to Pluto that could be classified as a planet.

On the other hand, we don't really know what a planet is in the grand scheme of things. We seem to have an okay grasp on what a planet is within our own solar system; as for other star systems, we've only just recently began to have a look at exoplanets and until we can study them better, we won't have a strong definition of "planet". So other people argue we should call Pluto a planet until we have a better idea of what a planet is. 

This is what three scientists also argued about during a debate held at Harvard on 18 September about what a planet is. Dr. Owen Gingerich argued that "planet" is a culturally defined word that has changed over time and Pluto should be a planet, while Dr. Gareth Williams stands by the IAU's definition and Pluto should not be a planet. Dr. Dimitar Sasselov claims that because Pluto is a "spherical lump of matter that formed around stars or stellar remnants," it is a planet. 

So the general consensus seems to be that Pluto should be reinstated as a planet, however, this debate will rage on, especially as the New Horizons spacecraft flies by Pluto in July 2015 and with the upcoming IAU General Assembly in Honolulu the following month. Will Pluto be our ninth planet once again? Only time will tell.

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/tech/innovation/is-pluto-a-planet/index.html

http://www.space.com/3948-dwarf-planet-outweighs-pluto.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/10/02/pluto-planet-solar-system/16578959/

"lol polygamous people don't know how to commit"

"lol bronies knew nothing about Lauren Faust being a feminist, burnnnnnnnn"

"PLUTO IS STILL A PLANET BECAUSE MY CHILDHOOD NOSTALGIA AND A POPULAR VOTE WHO CARES THAT THE OFFICIAL THING SAYS IT'S NOT DON'T RUIN MY FUN"

Times 

Sydney Morning Herald 

Science Alert

As you can see, all there was was a debate between a few astronomers and a vote by the public on whether or not Pluto should be reinstated as a planet.THERE IS NO OFFICIAL CLASSIFICATION TIES TO THIS DEBATE BY NASA OR THE IUATo classify Pluto as a planet and disregard it as a dwarf planet would throw off the entirety of how NASA, The International Astronomical Union and astronomers classify celestial bodies. 

In no way at all is pluto a planet and it has not 'become' one again

PLUTO IS MOTHER FUCKING DWARF PLANET WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NASA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. You can not consider Pluto a planet and still consider Eris a dwarf planet. Eris is bigger than Pluto, AND AND AND AND GUESS WHAT ASSHOLES Eris has a moon. SO WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK GUYS. IS PLUTO'S EGO SO FUCKING LARGE THAT HE NEEDS TO BE A PLANET  MORE THAN HIS BETTER QUALIFYING COUNTERPART?!?!?!!?!?!

Pluto does not fit all of the criteria for the definition of a planet set up by the international astronomical union. It does not clear out its orbit. All this stuff about the size and the number of moons does not really matter.

"But when I was a kid I was taught that there were nine planets, they can’t just change on me like that." At one point people were taught that the earth was flat. Things change.

Pluto still exists. Pluto was not destroyed. It is not a planet. It is a dwarf planet. It is a very interesting dwarf planet for several reason. But it is not a planet.

"BUT OHANA MEANS FAMILY AND FAMILY MEANS NOBODY GETS LEFT BEHIND OR FORGOTTEN!!!" It’s a giant icy rock. It’s not a human. It’s not a part of your family. If it is a part of your family then you are certainly not human.