January 22, 2001

9:07 PM

Will the Pluto mission once again get cancelled?I mean, now that Pluto isn't a planet anymore; apparently, it's been downgraded to "big ball of ice." After all those years of service, of faithful rotation, that steadfast revolve, how can they just kick a planet out like that?! It's a travesty, I tell you -- a travesty!
posted by monstro (11 comments total)

Imagine this year's science fair participants, they'll get by on 11% less work. Buncha lazy punks...

It feels like the little planet that could just got kicked off the team.

"You're just not big enough or rotating around the sun fast enough Rudy. You're going to be cut from the team."

Poor, poor, pluto.
posted by mathowie at 9:15 PM on January 22, 2001

Poor Flagstaff, Arizona too, the Lowell Observatory, outside of town, boasts their claim to fame that put America on the Astronomy map:

"Clyde Tombaugh's discovery of the planet, later to be named Pluto by a young English girl, took place on February 18, 1930. It is the only planet to be discovered in the United States and North America. "

Correction, it's the only ice ball discovered in the United States and North America. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?
posted by mathowie at 9:21 PM on January 22, 2001

What is a planet anyway?
posted by thirteen at 9:46 PM on January 22, 2001

"They can have a diameter closer to Jupiter's and, frequently, orbit a star just as a planet would."

Any chance that Jupiter sometime might become a Star?

If Jupiter gets hot enough, Europa might just be the next Earth.

I'm expecting a monolith when the mission to Europa takes place.
posted by Zool at 10:04 PM on January 22, 2001

Jupiter is nothing like large enough to become a star. Absent activity by a bunch of big black boxes, there's no possible chance of Jupiter becoming a star.


posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:31 PM on January 22, 2001

Yeah, becoming a star is a completely different thing. I took a summer astronomy course a few years ago (which I remember almost none of), but "stars" are pretty specific in nearly every aspect, from cycles to composition to all kinds of complicated stuff.
posted by swank6 at 1:03 AM on January 23, 2001

"Pluto, you've been asking for a demotion for EONS! What with your goofy eccentric orbit (you didn't think we'd notice those twenty years last century when you were closer to the Sun than Neptune?), your radical z-compenent angle, THE FACT THAT YOU ROTATE OPPOSITE DAMN NEAR EVERY OTHER LARGE ORBITAL BODY?!?!?! You're lucky that we're allowing you to be a planetoid, buddy."

"Ship up, or it's out to the Kuiper Belt for you!"

posted by Avogadro at 5:51 AM on January 23, 2001

I wonder how astrologists are going to deal with this. After weasling Pluto into all the calculations, are they going to have to weasel it back out?

I love seeing pseduoscientists squirm.
posted by cCranium at 6:11 AM on January 23, 2001

my very educated mother just served us nothing.
posted by cheesebot at 7:28 AM on January 23, 2001

Any chance that Jupiter sometime might become a Star?If Jupiter gets hot enough, Europa might just be the next Earth.

"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there."

PS - If you do try to land on Europa, your ship will get eaten by giant ice-sea plant monsters. Just to warn you.
posted by daveadams at 8:03 AM on January 23, 2001

PS - If you do try to land on Europa, your ship will get eaten by giant ice-sea plant monsters. Just to warn you.

Hey! No spoilers for Saving Private Ryan! Some of us haven't seen it yet!
posted by straight at 8:14 AM on January 23, 2001