THE GALACTIC SENATE

I just recently heard from my teacher ( I was listening to him in class when he talked about Pluto ) that Pluto has been discarded as a planet . Scientists no longer call it a Planet . But now they call it a dwarf * Something * ( I forgot after that As I stared into the open bored ... ) .

Old news or new news?

Cause I just heard about it .

If this is old news , i'll delete this topic .

PS : Mod's don't DELETE THIS TOPIC IF IT'S OLD NEWS . I WANT TO KNOW first okies?

I started this topic over at the star trek forum with this posting on 27 Aug: (there was a lot of interesting discussions)

The eight planets now recognized by the IAU are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Solar System objects now classified as dwarf planets are: Ceres, Pluto, and the currently unnamed 2003 UB313. Planets, by the new IAU definition, must be in orbit around the sun, be nearly spherical, and must have cleared the neighborhood around their orbits.

Pluto did not meet this definition.

Channelnewsasia documentary on this topic yesterday evening was most interesting. The documentary suggest that after Neptune, there is another ring of asteroid belt around the sun very much like the one between Mars and Jupiter, where one time people thought the asteroids there were planets. Similarly Pluto may be an asteroid in the outer asteroid belt but this has not been official yet.

Red_Fox2006 wrote:If this is old news , i'll delete this topic .

Yes, it's an old news ... late by 2 weeks liao lah!

Ah!

Sorry I receive news very slow XD

Anyone else that didn't know about this?

Actually, I didn't know about this either... guess I must be off in outer space myself... hehe!
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I believe it has not yet been decided if Pluto is a planet. If I remember correctly it will only be decided in a conference later this month or next month...

Its ironic that the 'discovery' of a 10th planet(Xena) may lead to the solar system only having 8 planets in the end...

BTW Xena has a moon, and they've named it Gabrielle

Plo Strax-Avix wrote:I believe it has not yet been decided if Pluto is a planet. If I remember correctly it will only be decided in a conference later this month or next month...

Its ironic that the 'discovery' of a 10th planet(Xena) may lead to the solar system only having 8 planets in the end...

BTW Xena has a moon, and they've named it Gabrielle

Actually it has been confirmed that Pluto is not a planet but a dwarf planet. Even the Singapore Science Centre has removed Pluto and put in its place an explanation describing why Pluto is no longer considered as a planet.

But that 'downgrade' is still hotly debated, and sugegsted that if the current definition to what constitute a planet is applied, we'd instantly have a dozen or more planets; dwarf planets they may be, in the solar system...

Plo Strax-Avix wrote:But that 'downgrade' is still hotly debated, and sugegsted that if the current definition to what constitute a planet is applied, we'd instantly have a dozen or more planets; dwarf planets they may be, in the solar system...

True. The decision has been made, however, not accepted by a lot of scientists.

I guess being in Singapore, I got used to changes and accepting them until another change comes along.

I am a Malaysian working and living in Singapore for over 20 years. early this year, when I was in Malaysia, I visited my primary school and secondary school. My primary school building is still there but no longer a school. My secondary school is still more or less the same, even after more than 30 years. My daughter's primary school in Singapore is gone. That is a great contrast.

.

Ok back to topic .

I heard some scientists called Pluto an asteroid .

A floating ball of ....

Asteroid!?

No way!

I must have heard it wrong ..

Anyways . Cool thing on the Xena-Gabrielle Planet-Moon .

Red_Fox2006 wrote: .

Ok back to topic .

I heard some scientists called Pluto an asteroid .

Long time ago when people were looking for planets, they found over a hundred of them. These were between Mars and Jupiter which we now know as the asteroid belt. I believe at that time the definition of the planet is the body the revolve around a star, so the bodies in the asteroid belt became planets until it was later classified as asteroids.

Another asteroid belt has been found in the outer rim of the solar system. Many bodies were found around the same orbit as Pluto, so Pluto may be an asteroid. If it is, it is the largest one so far. BTW, Pluto is one fifth the size of our moon. USA is even bigger than Pluto.

I for one have no sentimental reason to want Pluto to be a planet since it makes no difference to me and I have accepted change as part of progress. For all we know, another definition of planets may be arrived at, and Pluto will then become a planet and all the Science Centres around the world will have to put Pluto back.

no no!
about 12 parsecs south of the Rishi Maze.

which one's bigger? Pluto or Death Star?

jeez why NOW they decide to take away Pluto from our solar system, it's quite difficult to erase a 9-planet-in-our solar-system-brainwashed-brain.

Pluto is not a planet.... Pluto is a Star... in the same league as Mickey, Donald, Goofy......

al13ns wrote:which one's bigger? Pluto or Death Star?

Pluto's Diameter: 2274 KM
1st Death Star's Diameter: 120 KM
2nd Death Star's Diameter: 160 KM
(This is in contrast to the 900 km diameter figure stated in the Inside the Worlds of the Original Trilogy fact book, but still smaller then Pluto.)