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Looks like Earth might not be a planet!

It's a tiny asteroid which was captured I understand recently and temporarily (astronomically speaking). I does not mean that orbit was not cleared. Jupiter is no doubt has fair amount of such insignificant shit orbiting it too.
 
That organization that declared Pluto no longer a planet from what I have read does not speak for most astronomers nor the general public. What a planet is or isn't is a subjective matter, not anything of scientific truth or principle like whether life evolves over time or whether or not the/a flood was world wide or not. These can be scientifically and objectively determined. If those scientists that said Pluto isn't a planet want to stir up mess by all means defund them from the public's money they have no respect for and let them go get real jobs. I am sure an astronomy degree, even advanced, will get them fifty cents more above minimum wage sacking groceries somewhere. Their astronomy talks will provide good entertainment to the customers while they walk back and forth pushing buggies to cars.
 
BH said:
That organization that declared Pluto no longer a planet from what I have read does not speak for most astronomers nor the general public. What a planet is or isn't is a subjective matter, not anything of scientific truth or principle like whether life evolves over time or whether or not the/a flood was world wide or not. These can be scientifically and objectively determined. If those scientists that said Pluto isn't a planet want to stir up mess by all means defund them from the public's money they have no respect for and let them go get real jobs. I am sure an astronomy degree, even advanced, will get them fifty cents more above minimum wage sacking groceries somewhere. Their astronomy talks will provide good entertainment to the customers while they walk back and forth pushing buggies to cars.
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You sound republican.
 
BH said:
That organization that declared Pluto no longer a planet from what I have read does not speak for most astronomers nor the general public. What a planet is or isn't is a subjective matter, not anything of scientific truth or principle like whether life evolves over time or whether or not the/a flood was world wide or not. These can be scientifically and objectively determined. If those scientists that said Pluto isn't a planet want to stir up mess by all means defund them from the public's money they have no respect for and let them go get real jobs. I am sure an astronomy degree, even advanced, will get them fifty cents more above minimum wage sacking groceries somewhere. Their astronomy talks will provide good entertainment to the customers while they walk back and forth pushing buggies to cars.
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To use your example, it is more like they are examining what it means to "flood". How many gallons of water are necessary to call an event a "flood"?

"Clear its orbit"... what does it mean to "clear" an orbit? Can there be not a pebble, nor spec of dust whatsoever? an Orbit is a fine line.. From how far out of the actual orbit must it be "clear"?

It's a bit silly.
 
Loren Pechtel said:
https://medium.com/@mtanne/turns-out-earth-isnt-a-planet-c06f5208d36e

Turns out the Earth hasn't quite cleared it's orbit.

(Although I'm thinking it might be a capture.)
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By all the quantitative analyses of "clearing one's orbit" that I have seen, Earth has accomplished that and thus qualifies for planethood. Clearing the orbit doesn't mean that there's *nothing* else in the same or similar orbit. It is about dominance. The language is a poor way of differentiating between a planet and something that is simply the largest (or one of the largest) objects in a class of objects all sharing similar orbits (and likely compositions and origins), like Pluto is with the Kuiper Belt or Ceres is with the asteroid belt.
 
BH said:
That organization that declared Pluto no longer a planet from what I have read does not speak for most astronomers nor the general public. What a planet is or isn't is a subjective matter, not anything of scientific truth or principle like whether life evolves over time or whether or not the/a flood was world wide or not. These can be scientifically and objectively determined. If those scientists that said Pluto isn't a planet want to stir up mess by all means defund them from the public's money they have no respect for and let them go get real jobs. I am sure an astronomy degree, even advanced, will get them fifty cents more above minimum wage sacking groceries somewhere. Their astronomy talks will provide good entertainment to the customers while they walk back and forth pushing buggies to cars.
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[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2gbGXzFbs[/YOUTUBE]
 
barbos said:
BH said:
That organization that declared Pluto no longer a planet from what I have read does not speak for most astronomers nor the general public. What a planet is or isn't is a subjective matter, not anything of scientific truth or principle like whether life evolves over time or whether or not the/a flood was world wide or not. These can be scientifically and objectively determined. If those scientists that said Pluto isn't a planet want to stir up mess by all means defund them from the public's money they have no respect for and let them go get real jobs. I am sure an astronomy degree, even advanced, will get them fifty cents more above minimum wage sacking groceries somewhere. Their astronomy talks will provide good entertainment to the customers while they walk back and forth pushing buggies to cars.
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You sound republican.
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No, I am not a Republican. It's just that Pluto has five moons. Five moons. We just have one. Who are we to say what is a planet or not?
 
Planet is an arbitrary designation.

The objects circling the sun are the same shape but they are all distinct and different from one another.
 
LordKiran said:
BH said:
That organization that declared Pluto no longer a planet from what I have read does not speak for most astronomers nor the general public. What a planet is or isn't is a subjective matter, not anything of scientific truth or principle like whether life evolves over time or whether or not the/a flood was world wide or not. These can be scientifically and objectively determined. If those scientists that said Pluto isn't a planet want to stir up mess by all means defund them from the public's money they have no respect for and let them go get real jobs. I am sure an astronomy degree, even advanced, will get them fifty cents more above minimum wage sacking groceries somewhere. Their astronomy talks will provide good entertainment to the customers while they walk back and forth pushing buggies to cars.
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[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2gbGXzFbs[/YOUTUBE]
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I think this video is very good. It explains why Pluto cannot be classified as a planet. The reason is that if Pluto was a planet a compelling case would be made that hundreds of other objects in the solar system are also planets. In fact, you can have 4 terrestrial planets, 4 gas giants, asteroids and the kuiper belt.
 
Are people still getting bent out of shape about Pluto not being a planet anymore? Really?

Sigh.

Look, we have found a variety of objects like Pluto: small, far from the Sun, with odd orbits, etc. When Pluto was the only one, it made sense to lump it together with the other planets. When we found two others like Pluto, it was time to give Pluto and the others their own designation.

Why does everyone have their panties in a wad because we now have two different kinds of planets?
 
Underseer said:
Are people still getting bent out of shape about Pluto not being a planet anymore? Really?

Sigh.

Look, we have found a variety of objects like Pluto: small, far from the Sun, with odd orbits, etc. When Pluto was the only one, it made sense to lump it together with the other planets. When we found two others like Pluto, it was time to give Pluto and the others their own designation.

Why does everyone have their panties in a wad because we now have two different kinds of planets?
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But please think of the children!! Won't anyone think of the children??
 
BH said:
Who are we to say what is a planet or not?
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Seriously? The lumping of things into categories is very strictly a human activity. So who are we to do that? Well, we the only ones to do that! It's entirely a matter of convenience to us, it's not "written in the stars" that this is a planet and that is not. Nothing's a "planet" or a "moon" or any other category of object except humans say so.
 
rjh01 said:
LordKiran said:
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2gbGXzFbs[/YOUTUBE]
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I think this video is very good. It explains why Pluto cannot be classified as a planet. The reason is that if Pluto was a planet a compelling case would be made that hundreds of other objects in the solar system are also planets. In fact, you can have 4 terrestrial planets, 4 gas giants, asteroids and the kuiper belt.
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That is the large majority of classifiable objects in the solar system. For the sake of clarity he did omit the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter and to a smaller degree the other gas giant trojans. Also the Scattered Disk Objects and finally the Oort Cloud which has not been directly imaged yet.

CGP Grey almost never disappoints. Top ten youtube channel for sure.

ETA, I guess I was a bit wrong on trojans, from wikipedia:

The Jupiter trojans account for most known trojans in the Solar System. They are divided into the Greek camp (L4) in front of and the Trojan camp (L5) trailing behind Jupiter in their orbit. More than 6,000 have been found so far and more than a million Jupiter trojans larger than one kilometer are thought to exist, whereas only a few Mars trojans (4) and Neptune trojans (17) have been found to date. Numerical calculations of the orbital dynamics involved indicate that Saturn and Uranus probably do not have any primordial trojans. The discovery of the first Earth trojan, 2010 TK7, was announced by NASA in 2011
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Yeah but I wasn't always this pigeon.

I saw the Sun's spots, the Moon's craters and its seas, the redness of Mars, Jupiter and four of its moons, and Saturn and its rings.

I also saw the Earth, but not in the night sky.
EB
 
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