Pluto is a planet no more

[X.]

This is big news

Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.

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[shariqq]

Today is a Sad Day.

We are officially the "Older Gereneration" now. The ones who studied about Nine Planets.

[sulphurhead]

wasn't there talk about making the moon a planet?

[shariqq]

Wha? Impossible. One of the primary requirements for a "Planet" classification is to revolve around a Star. And while Earth is still struggling, she can't be deemed a Star yet.

[sacred_promises]

Today is a Sad Day.

We are officially the "Older Gereneration" now. The ones who studied about Nine Planets.

 

i feel sooo OLD now!

[Metty]

Yeah, this is gonna give way for people to go "oh since pluto exists" when they wanna say long ago :/
heh

[sandeep]

Imagine all the re-writing that has to be done... my neices came up to me and questioned my knowledge on the subject... it felt odd to be 'de-educated' by a 9 year old

[ozzylogic]

wasn't there talk about making the moon a planet?

The moon's still considered to be our satellite. When's the next release of the official Solar System planned?

[fizz]

This is absurd, it amounts to raping a person after killing him. If moons can have names (titan for e.g.) why can't a dwarf planet? Does it need to be numbered to make apparent a change in status?

Pluto has been given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet.

On Sept. 7, the former 9th planet was assigned the asteroid number 134340 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the official organization responsible for collecting data about asteroids and comets in our solar system.

The move reinforces the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) recent decision to strip Pluto of its planethood and places it in the same category as other small solar-system bodies with accurately known orbits.

Pluto's companion satellites, Charon, Nix and Hydra are considered part of the same system and will not be assigned separate asteroid numbers, said MPC director emeritus Brian Marsden. Instead, they will be called 134340 I, II and III, respectively.

There are currently 136,563 asteroid objects recognized by the MPC; 2,224 new objects were added last week, of which Pluto was the first.

Other notable objects to receive asteroid numbers included 2003 UB313, also known as "Xena," and the recently discovered Kuiper Belt objects 2003 EL61 and 2005 FY9. Their asteroid numbers are 136199, 136108 and 136472, respectively.

The MPC also issued a separate announcement stating that the assignment of permanent asteroid numbers to Pluto and other large objects located beyond the orbit of Neptune "does not preclude their having dual designations in possible separate catalogues of such bodies."

Marsden explained that the cryptic wording refers to the future possibility of creating a separate astronomical catalogue specific to dwarf planets. There might even be more than one catalogue created, he said.

The recent IAU decision implies "that there would be two catalogues of dwarf planets-one for just the trans-Neptunian Pluto type and the other for objects like Ceres, which has also been deemed a dwarf planet," Marsden told SPACE.com. "That's why that statement was put there, to reassure people who think there would be other catalogues that this numbering of Pluto doesn't preclude that."

Pluto's asteroid number was first reported today on the website of Sky and Telescope magazine.

[shariqq]

I feel sad   
It's like someone somewhere deciding and forcing us to accept Joe Pantoliano as an Extra 

[kaytee]

Honestly I dont care if there is a Pluto or not, coz it doesn't affect me.

[ozzylogic]

Honestly I dont care if there is a Pluto or not, coz it doesn't affect me.

You never liked Science in school, did you?

[kaytee]

As a matter of fact I did...scored a 90 in the 10th boards.

[X.]

Honestly I dont care if there is a Pluto or not, coz it doesn't affect me.

Then stay out of this fucking thread

[X.]

They have stripped Pluto of its name so that people cannot call it something. This will discourage them from even talking about it because honestly imagine yourself going "Oh, it breaks my heart that asteroid number 134340 is no longer a planet!"

Since Pluto is legally not Pluto anymore, I recommend we fuck the scientists back by exploiting an obvious loophole - we can still refer to the disgraced planet in below terms...