Astrologers have long believed there's a planet Vulcan waiting to be discoverd.

Vulcan was supposed to be closer to the sun than Mercury, and was predicted to exist by astronomers on the basis of some apparent orbital irregularities of Mercury which went away when relativistic er.. stuff was taken into account, and by astrologers when Geminis didn't suck as much as they should have done.
I'm quite inspired by the thought of earth or Mars-sized icy rocks in the outer reaches of the solar system.

IMHo, I think the new planet is the Death Star planted there by KKKarl Rove. Any day now we'll be seeing legions of clone warriors and tie fighters decending on earth with the intent to destroy the remains of the democrat party or maybe it's just a speck of dust on the hubble mirror.

Bah! If it takes fancy-schmancy 21st century technology to detect it, it sure isn't going to make much of a dent on your horoscope.

Woot! My first tip-o-the-ol'-AoS-hat!

BTW, speaking of cedarford, do you know why he crossed the road? His dick was stuck in the chicken! Hey, I'm here all week! Don't forget to tip your host!

"That's no moon."

You have to admit, "SpewFan" has a certain ring to it. Even ACE seems to enjoy it. Perhaps because there is a hint of truth.

ACE can go with My Favorite Nazi - It reminds me of Ray Walston laying down the law on Spocoli and his Pizza.

I think of ACE as an Oscar Wilde who spoke of the Spewfan sort of "Love that dare not speak it's name" in the sense that ACE bespeaks for the "One Country That He Dare Not Criticize".

Forbidden love vs the Forbidden subject in the WoT.

No, I don't think it has a "certain ring to it." I think it's childish and stupid. One of the stupidest aspects of on-line argument is the juvenile re-naming of posters.

Planet, schmanet. It was probably just Ted Kennedy wandering home after tieing one on.

Why would they attack the Democratic party? When the clones attack the earth they'll be the only one's who will understand the root causes behind their attack?

While still supporting our troops of coursae.

ace wrote:
One of the stupidest aspects of on-line argument is the juvenile re-naming of posters.

:(

Dude, what a year. First it turns out 666 isn't really the number of the beast, and now Pluto isn't a planet ??? Jeebis! My whole world is turning upside down.

There's a simple solution to this problem - blow up Pluto. Any new wannabe planets will have to do a little more than tripping over that low hurdle to be considered for official status. And, we can scare the crap out of everyone. "Hey everyone, look what happened to Pluto, and it was just minding its own business. We're the USA, and we're friggin' crazy!"

One of the stupidest aspects of on-line argument is the juvenile re-naming of posters.

I'm sorry, by stupidest, did you perhaps mean most deliciously burn-o-rific, Monsieur Ace of Gaywads?

Pluto is clearly a planet and so are all the other discoveries. Think of the negative impact that denying them planetary status will have on their self esteem and future development.

Nobody wants to go settle a KBO - they want to settle a planet.

The way the word was originally used, any light that wandered the sky rather than moving in lockstep with the stars was a "planet." So Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were certainly planets, but so was the Moon--and the Sun! Earth, on the other hand, was not a planet.

Man, loose shit astronomers. Just because you try to regale us with data on far off stars but haven't even managed to count the frigging planets in our own solar system you have to start ragging on Pluto. Shameful.

Geez, there's a lot of crap floating around out there.

Sounds like we need a vacuum cleaner. Har de har har.

Later,
bbeck

How about cedarford, bbeck? He certainly sucks in cosmic proportions!

Brew, you think he sucks? I think he blows. :)

Either way, I don't understand why he doesn't take a long walk on a short pier, preferably while wearing his good luck concrete.

Later,
bbeck

Brew and Bbeck...

And I think he swallows.

The "reality-based community" will then, predictably and invetiably, be forced to mock the Plutophiles, perhaps denigrating Pluto as a "sub-planetoid Jeebus spacerock."
And then we just sit back and reap the political benefits.

You're on to something.
Sorry, I meant, you're ON something.

Probably valu-rite discount vodka and Klonopin suppositories.
But I digress. Or regress. Whatever.

Do we know the political persuasion of these guys defining what is, and what is not a planet?
For all we know the planet-spoilers could be saying, "It's just a cluster of space-rocks!"

While OUR guys are going, "Heathen! If it has gravity, it's a PLANET." Or something.

I've long thought that Pluto shouldn't be considered a planet. There are just too many reasons why it doesn't make sense to consider it that way. It's not on the ecliptic, it's too small, there are too many objects like it in the Kuiper belt, and so on.

The problem is coming up with a rigorous definition of "planet"; there's really no way to do it. But if you include Pluto, why not also Ceres, the largest Asteroid, whose diameter is half that of Pluto?

There are six moons in the solar system which are larger than Pluto: Triton, Titan, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Luna. The smallest planet, Mercury, has a diameter more than twice that of Pluto.

And once Charon (Pluto's moon) was discovered and its orbit characterized, it was possible to come up with a good estimate of Pluto's mass and a reasonable approximation of its density. It's an iceball; it isn't rock and metal like the inner planets, or a ball of gas like the outer planets.

As long as were tossin out objects to de-planet, how bout Saturn?

God, I've always hated that gas bag. "Oooh, lookit me everybody! I've got rings." Yeah, we get it Saturn. You've got rings. Fine. I think it's time Ms. Stuck up 6th from the sun got her cumuppence.

Saturn is hereby no longer a planet. There bitch.

"Isaiah always seems to set these people off."

Gee, I wonder why?

I just opened it completely at random, and here's what I found:

"But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the harlot." (57.3)

How great is that? "Seed of the adulterer and the harlot." I've got to update my Friendster profile ...

Okay, having been burned in a previous thread re: the name "Charon", I did some poking around this time before posting. I've come to the conclusion that we don't have enough planets named after Roman chick gods in this solar system. We've got Venus and that's about it ("Earth" doesn't have any connection with the Roman god naming convention). So I nominate the name "Minerva" (Greek - Athena) for the new one. As I recall she had a reputation for being somewhat cold & distant as Roman/Greek gods go. Also, I've done some quick searches and it seems that Minerva hasn't been associated with any local celestial bodies yet.

I think this is the proper place and time for a couple of classic Pluto bits from the (sadly defunct) Brunching Shuttlecoks.

Most of the Roman "chick gods" got asteroids named after them, including Minerva.

Me, I'm waiting for the next season of Sailor Moon...

If Pluto can be a plant, why can't Australia be a continent? This is SO unfair!

Well, I guess Pluto could be a plant, and a planet too. But Australia is STILL getting the short end of the stick, real estate-wise.

I'm still reeling that Den Beste posted here.
He must have been faced.

or a ball of gas like the outer planets.

Then Oliver Willis is a planet.

Mental heavyweight and blog-god Steven Den Beste deigns to comment here and he is completely ignored. Geeze, Ace, you really ARE the only important one on this stage. Heh.

I still think the ancient definition is admirable in its simplicity and obviousness: If you can see it and it's not one of "the fixed stars," that is, if it moves against the starry background, it's a "wanderer" or "planet."

--Edric

Den Beste is right, as usual. There are only eight planets in the Solar System. Pluto, Sedna and the rest are KBOs.

I never quite understood why a planet can't be a KBO -- obviously, a gas giant is less like Earth than Pluto is and yet we consider Jupiter and Earth to both be planets.

I'd say a planet is anything that orbits a star that's Pluto-sized or bigger.

The important question is "Did John Roberts ever express an opinion on the existance of a 10th planet?" I will not be satisfied until the Administration releases all of Roberts' extra-Plutonian opinions. I don't see how the scientific community can do their job on this subject until they have all the information.