80th Anniversary of Pluto's Discovery

It was on Feb. 18, 1930 that Clyde Tombaugh found the ninth planet in our solar system. Is there anybody with me that Pluto got screwed by the IAU four years ago?????

That, and Mickey's dog who can't talk, even though Goofy can.

On both counts... ;)

New Horizons

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/spacecraft/index.html

Eighty years ago now.

:shrug:

Perhaps a future generation will right yet another wrong they'll inherit.

:shrug:

they were taught in school -9 planets, nice and neat- simply doesn't exist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_%28dwarf_planet%29



If Pluto is a "planet", then Eris certainly is. As is Sedna. As is Makemake.

So, either you have something like 12-15 "planets" and counting, or you change the definition of planet so it doesn't include Trans-Neptunian/Kuiper Belt objects (like Pluto), etc.

:-)

Is that any way to deal with it? :shrug:


This ain't your grandfather's solar system. I welcome our trans-Neptunian neighbors.

I tire of it sometimes.

I say let it be called whatever it wants.

If that's what you want, fine. Otherwise it's like people who insist that Noah saved all the animals on a big ark because that's what they were told as kids. Science updates itself as per the facts, not as per what people like to think or are comfortable with.

The observatory and the city both take a great deal of pride in that discovery, and no one can take that away.

It's cool seeing the actual telescope used by Tombaugh, and the blink generator he used to confirm his finding.

The Search for Planet X, documenting Tombaugh's discovery, which was based in part on information obtained by Lowell and others (in fact, the symbol for Pluto, the stylized PL, stands for both Pluto, and Percival Lowell).

I don't think the people of Flagstaff or Lowell Observatory are upset in the least that Pluto's designation was changed. In the cause of science, those things happen, and are to be expected.

All I said was they take pride in the DISCOVERY. I didn't say "planetary discovery". Regardless of how Pluto is categorized, it was discovered there, and for the greater part of the 20th century, Lowell Observatory occupied a special place in our evolving knowledge of the solar system. It's not every day a planet is "demoted" because our frontiers of knowledge advance. Even in Pluto's post-planetary era, Tombaugh's modest achievement honors science because he did what every professional, amateur, or novice astronomer dreams of doing: making what can be considered a major discovery in its time. 75 years or so was a good run, even as it's in a blink of the eye in the big picture.

achievement.

Hey- the guy did it with 1930 technology; photographic plates. The fact that it took until recently for anyone to find others of these things reinforces the scope of the achievement.

My only point was, if you look in terms of what has been discovered, the sheer volume of real estate, the last 10-20 years have been an incredibly exciting time. Same goes for discoveries about the solar system. Same goes for discoveries of other solar systems...

It's a shame, because so many people still seem to be working with the version of the universe they were taught in elementary school in the 1960s, 70s, or 80s. The reality -as we understand it so far, certainly more to come- is way more interesting.

It was the Depression, and he was practically an intern at the observatory. It's frickin' COLD up there in northern AZ during the winter, and he spent many a frozen hour taking plate after plate of negatives.

I think that's what I like about the Pluto story. He did a lot with what he had, and no one asked him to do it. No committee, no grant, no support of any kind. He had other duties at the observatory, so it was like a hobby for him.

I completely agree about the changing model of what we conceive as the solar system. The wire and styrofoam balls of our childhood are obsolete, as well they should be. We couldn't have gone from Ptolemy to Copernicus, and from Galileo to Herschel, without moving ever onward.

Think of how much we owe to the Hubble Telescope, and how depressing it is we may not have it for much longer.

Oh, I know there are other injustices for us to worry about -- like the failure of the Apollo astronauts to acknowledge the Moonbeings -- but they are all small potatoes compared to the disrespect we have shown poor Pluto

Kuiper belt caused it to be categorized incorrectly. Nobody knew there was a Kuiper belt at the time.

The idea that it should continue to be categorized incorrectly just for the hell of it is insane IMO.




It Isn't A Planet !

It Never Was A Planet !

It Never Will Be A Planet !


Get over it.

As far as I'm concerned, a "planet" is a large body circling a star in a roughly circular, stable orbit. If it has it's OWN moon, it's DEFINITELY a planet.

Asteroids DON'T have moons.

It was a logical and consistent redefinition of "planet". Eris, Sedna and Quaoar kinda make it hard to call everything we discover in the Kuiper belt a planet.

...screwy, before and after the ruling.

Call any spherical body that orbits a star a planet. I don't care if it means we get 2000 planets or more, just go to a Star Trek like classification system. If were going to go via this route of specific definitions, then we don't really have 8 planets either....Jupiter should be classified as as small brown dwarf.

B-b-b-but then what is an asteroid? Anything that isn't spherical, and planets in an asteroid field can simply be given there own class.

And yes, I do know that means in umpteen million years the moon could eventually be called a planet...but how different is Mercury from our moon? Aside relative distance from our local star.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/24/102112/777

Just before coming down to speak with you, I called Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus and congratulated them on their success today. As I see it, in this campaign, we've just finished the first half and the Classical Planet team is ahead, but in the second half, our team -- Team Pluto -- is going to surge forward to victory.

I am, of course, disappointed by the results, but I am not discouraged. I am not disappointed because I lost my planetary status, but because the old politics of scholarship and intellectual integrity won today.

I expect my opponents will continue to do in the future what they have done today: Belittle me instead of coming up with ideas to avoid having to rewrite science textbooks.

I will continue to offer the astronomers a different path forward to make my Solar system and orbit a better place to live and work, and that's what I want to do for another six million more years.

I know a lot of people in this system, and not just "classical planets", are angry about the direction in which the Solar system is moving, and so am I.

Tomorrow morning, our campaign will file the necessary petition with the International Astronomical Union so that we can continue this campaign for a new astronomy of unity and purpose. I will always do what is right for my orbit and Solar system regardless of what the political consequences may be.

Tomorrow is a brand new day. Tomorrow we launch a new campaign -- Team Pluto -- Asteroids, non-conforming celestial objects and planets.

UPDATE: Dick Cheney has issued a statement:
"Pluto's demotion today is a victory for the terra-ists."