Post by Avatar on Apr 10, 2024 21:04:35 GMT
Just came back from screaming at the sky. No, you do not want to know why.
Pluto.
Summary: Pluto is actually a binary orbiting locus object which includes Pluto - Charon. The Earth - Moon is the other binary orbiting locus (barycentered) object within the Solar system. It may be hard to wrap your head around it, but that definition makes Earth not technically a planet, either, though astronomers let that one slide.
Other characteristics, that make Pluto not fit the planet definition,
That third part of the definition has been quirky, but if you refine it to include the caveat, that satellites captured by the "planet" do not count as objects cleared out of the orbit, then you can also skate on such items that there are asteroids that share Earth's and Venus' orbits, or that Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus have debris fields that trail them. Just saying, you have to "twiddle" the definition a bit. Avatar.
The justification for not calling Pluto a planet is technically that it has not cleared out Neptune, and that it is a binary locus orbiting object. But what really happened back in 2015, was that someone thought about how small Pluto -Charon was, how it's orbit passed inside Neptune, how it resembled many suspected and recently discovered objects in the Oort Cloud, and fitted into the dwarf planet definition (Ceres) better than planet one as then understood. Then Pluto - Charon has this weird orbital inclination. That orbit is steeply inclined to the plane of the rest of the planets which makes it a capture candidate for Neptune, which originally bungled the merge and allowed Pluto -Charon to escape into its own orbit, much like our moon will do in a couple of billion years. (We have to do something about that, or life on Earth will perish, from lack of tides. Avatar.)
So the International Astronomical Union got its members together to redefine Pluto. Instant uproar. The Pluto is a planet meme and movement took off.
Politics;
Brown was outfoxed by a Spanish team, who stole his discovery. So Haumea was never credited.
Planet 9 (Brown) is another episode in the jangled politics.
Ultimately, the lesson about Pluto, and most anything else, is that you need to adjust as you get new Knowledge:
a. Sure; the Russian astronomers acted out of spite, when they downgraded Pluto and took an "American" planet away.
b. Sure: Brown was shafted three times by non-Americans, so now he has gone bat-guano crazy and claimed the 9th planet, when it is not out there.
c. Sure: the generations are split by a cultural chasm that allows the powers that be to pit one against the other, ideologically, while they rob us blind.
d. And the Rick and Morty show is propaganda GARBAGE. You get your politics from Adult Swim, you are a straight jacket candidate. (Just saying, the show shills for the corps, too, man.)
Anyhow... the lesson is...
Bite me, let me repeat...
Bite me.
Avatar
Pluto.
Summary: Pluto is actually a binary orbiting locus object which includes Pluto - Charon. The Earth - Moon is the other binary orbiting locus (barycentered) object within the Solar system. It may be hard to wrap your head around it, but that definition makes Earth not technically a planet, either, though astronomers let that one slide.
Other characteristics, that make Pluto not fit the planet definition,
The definition of a planet adopted by the IAU says a planet must do three things:
--It must orbit a star (in our cosmic neighborhood, the Sun).
--It must be big enough to have enough gravity to force it into a spherical shape.
--It must be big enough that its gravity has cleared away any other objects of a similar size near its orbit around the Sun.
--It must orbit a star (in our cosmic neighborhood, the Sun).
--It must be big enough to have enough gravity to force it into a spherical shape.
--It must be big enough that its gravity has cleared away any other objects of a similar size near its orbit around the Sun.
That third part of the definition has been quirky, but if you refine it to include the caveat, that satellites captured by the "planet" do not count as objects cleared out of the orbit, then you can also skate on such items that there are asteroids that share Earth's and Venus' orbits, or that Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus have debris fields that trail them. Just saying, you have to "twiddle" the definition a bit. Avatar.
The justification for not calling Pluto a planet is technically that it has not cleared out Neptune, and that it is a binary locus orbiting object. But what really happened back in 2015, was that someone thought about how small Pluto -Charon was, how it's orbit passed inside Neptune, how it resembled many suspected and recently discovered objects in the Oort Cloud, and fitted into the dwarf planet definition (Ceres) better than planet one as then understood. Then Pluto - Charon has this weird orbital inclination. That orbit is steeply inclined to the plane of the rest of the planets which makes it a capture candidate for Neptune, which originally bungled the merge and allowed Pluto -Charon to escape into its own orbit, much like our moon will do in a couple of billion years. (We have to do something about that, or life on Earth will perish, from lack of tides. Avatar.)
So the International Astronomical Union got its members together to redefine Pluto. Instant uproar. The Pluto is a planet meme and movement took off.
Politics;
Brown was outfoxed by a Spanish team, who stole his discovery. So Haumea was never credited.
Planet 9 (Brown) is another episode in the jangled politics.
Ultimately, the lesson about Pluto, and most anything else, is that you need to adjust as you get new Knowledge:
a. Sure; the Russian astronomers acted out of spite, when they downgraded Pluto and took an "American" planet away.
b. Sure: Brown was shafted three times by non-Americans, so now he has gone bat-guano crazy and claimed the 9th planet, when it is not out there.
c. Sure: the generations are split by a cultural chasm that allows the powers that be to pit one against the other, ideologically, while they rob us blind.
d. And the Rick and Morty show is propaganda GARBAGE. You get your politics from Adult Swim, you are a straight jacket candidate. (Just saying, the show shills for the corps, too, man.)
Anyhow... the lesson is...
Bite me, let me repeat...
Bite me.
Avatar