bye bye pluto (17 Viewers)

ReBeL

The Jackal
Jan 14, 2005
22,871
#4
I also have a slight tear in my eye today because I never thought scientists are naive enough to think about such a rediculous thing...

What if it is a planet or not??

:disagree:
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,750
#7
The astronomers really could care less. It's a social construct more than anything. But IMO, it never deserved to be called a planet to begin with. You put that thing near the orbit of Mars, it would burn off to be less than a tenth of its size and it would grow a tail like a comet.

As if it wasn't confusing enough that sometimes it's the furthest planet from the sun, and sometimes it's Neptune... :p
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,750
#11
Altair said:
so where does Charon fit in all of this?
I think it's classified just like Pluto: a dwarf planet. Charon and Pluto are also, in effect, classified as a double object -- like a double star -- since the center of orbit between Charon and Pluto is really located between the two objects. Even if they still (errantly) call Charon Pluto's "moon".
 

mikhail

Senior Member
Jan 24, 2003
9,576
#20
swag said:
I think it's classified just like Pluto: a dwarf planet. Charon and Pluto are also, in effect, classified as a double object -- like a double star -- since the center of orbit between Charon and Pluto is really located between the two objects. Even if they still (errantly) call Charon Pluto's "moon".
Yep. Cool animations to demonstrate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barycenter#Animations
 

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