Thursday, August 24, 2006

GOODBYE PLUTO!

For how many years have we, and our children, been taught of the solar system and it's 9 planets?
Well ALL science books will need to be re-written since now we are only recognizing 8 planets.
So our 9th planet has been rejected, and what about Walt Disney's famous dog named Pluto? Will he be taken out of orbit too?(lol) After all, he was named after our "last" planet in our solar system.
If Pluto where to land here, on our planet, it could fit nicely into the USA, since it is smaller. HEY maybe a few hundred years down the road we Amnericans will become PLUTONIANS, (he he he...)
Who knows, we may soon find yet another "unknown" celestial body, bringing it back to 9, and even 10 or 11 or 12..... etc.

ALL ABOUT PLUTO


*Pluto's day:
6.4 Earth days.

*Pluto's year:
248 Earth years.

*Average distance from sun:
3.7 billion miles, or 5.9 billion kilometers.

*What's in a name?
Pluto is also the name of the Roman god of the underworld.
It was suggested by many people, but credit was given to an 11-year-old girl from England.




Giving Pluto The Boot:
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (Aug. 24)
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.

The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.


For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."
Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun -- "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.