OrbWeaver on 25/8/2006 at 10:15
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Yet that was given as the justification for Pluto not being a planet. I mean, either their orbits are crossed or they aren't, you can't say one is and the other isn't.
I was under the impression that the problem was other Pluto-sized objects in the vicinity of Pluto's orbit, not Neptune itself.
Quote:
Technically. In 40 million years - very brief in cosmic terms - the moon won't even be classified as a satellite, we'll be a double-planetoid system.
So what exactly is going to happen that will prevent the Moon being classed as a satellite? Will it stop orbiting the Earth?
Bulgarian_Taffer on 25/8/2006 at 10:54
No, it's not going to stop orbiting, but each year the distance between the Moon and the Earth is increasing.Now the barycenter is under the surface of the earth, but this will change in future.
Para?noid on 25/8/2006 at 11:37
I find it a bit heartless that a planet so much a part of literature and song is going to be shuffled out of the textbooks. I always envisioned it as a shimmering, crystalline ice world full of high-evolved creatures that sat on the Plutonian shores (?) in a kind of anti-hibernation in order to get as much light to power them as possible.
Now it's just going to become one of those boring "objects" that is of no real interest to anyone but those boring planetary astronomers.
hopper on 25/8/2006 at 12:32
Quote Posted by Bulgarian_Taffer
And after they discovered many objects nearly as big as Pluto, including Xena which is bigger than Pluto, what would happen if they're all given planetary status? 50 planets or more.
Why would that be a problem? We don't shoehorn the sun into a definition all it's own, only to distinguish it semantically from the gazillion or so other objects like it in the universe.
Hier on 25/8/2006 at 13:04
I say, good! I was sick of all the half-assed hunks of rock claiming to be something they're not. If you can't act like a planet get out of my house! I'm looking at you, Mercury.
Carini on 25/8/2006 at 13:50
Isn't this going to screw up Astrology or something.
OrbWeaver on 25/8/2006 at 13:54
Quote Posted by Carini
Isn't this going to screw up Astrology or something.
Yes, it means that from now on astrology will be bullshit.
Oh wait...
SD on 25/8/2006 at 14:48
Yeah, the very idea that celestial bodies can have an effect here on Earth is completely ridiculous. There's no such thing as tides, and what's this "day" and "night" shit?
Leaving sarcasm aside for a moment, I don't think the demotion of Pluto will have much of an effect on astrology, as most of the emphasis in astrology is placed on the seven classical "planets" anyway (the Sun & Moon, along with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). Astrology survived the discovery of Pluto in 1930, and I don't expect its removal will cause it any great inconvenience.
OrbWeaver on 25/8/2006 at 15:00
Quote Posted by Strontium Dog
Yeah, the very idea that celestial bodies can have an effect here on Earth is completely ridiculous. There's no such thing as tides, and what's this "day" and "night" shit?
Astrologers' Woo-Woo Bullshit Defense No 1: the specific and limited scientific phenomenon of tidal forces can be used to justify pseudoscientific predictions about the actions and personalities of humans, despite the total absence of any repeatable evidence of the accuracy of such predictions or the existence of any mechanism by which they could reasonably operate.
SD on 25/8/2006 at 15:20
itt we make demands on esoteric belief systems that we wouldnt dream of making on religious belief systems
score 1 for closed minds
