Thursday, August 24, 2006
You think you had a bad day
If you think you had a bad day today (Thursday, Aug. 24), compare it to Pluto. The planet woke up to find it had lost it's planetary status. The newest (1930) addition to the family has just been kicked out by the International Astronomical Union.
What is worse, the group doesn't know what to call the formerly ninth member of our solar system family.
As described in a Washington Post article, Pluto has been downgraded to a class of objects as yet to be named. I guess if you ask the IAU, they could tell you they know what it isn't; they just aren't sure what it is, yet.
This whole episode comes on the heels of another group's annoucement that there are 12 planets and Pluto was one of them.
Twelve? Eight?
All I know is my ninth grade science teacher told me there were nine planets. I'm sticking with him.
Does this mean that map of the solar system I did for extra credit will now get graded down?
Just a joke.
I never did a project on the solar system for science class. Other's did though and they may be upset now.
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In recent years astronomers have found dozens, if not hundreds of planets circling other stars. We are finding that the universe has a lot more planets in orbit than we previously thought. It is a shame that at the same time we are adding to the planetary list for the universe, we are reducing our own number at the same time.
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Science is forcing us to re-examine long-held believes in many areas. Why not the solar system.
What is worse, the group doesn't know what to call the formerly ninth member of our solar system family.
As described in a Washington Post article, Pluto has been downgraded to a class of objects as yet to be named. I guess if you ask the IAU, they could tell you they know what it isn't; they just aren't sure what it is, yet.
This whole episode comes on the heels of another group's annoucement that there are 12 planets and Pluto was one of them.
Twelve? Eight?
All I know is my ninth grade science teacher told me there were nine planets. I'm sticking with him.
Does this mean that map of the solar system I did for extra credit will now get graded down?
Just a joke.
I never did a project on the solar system for science class. Other's did though and they may be upset now.
-----
In recent years astronomers have found dozens, if not hundreds of planets circling other stars. We are finding that the universe has a lot more planets in orbit than we previously thought. It is a shame that at the same time we are adding to the planetary list for the universe, we are reducing our own number at the same time.
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Science is forcing us to re-examine long-held believes in many areas. Why not the solar system.
# posted by Richard Polk @ 12:41 PM 
