Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It was declassified because it's composition is identical to all the other objects in the Kuiper Belt, where short period comets come from (like Halley's comet.) They already found another object out there bigger than Pluto, so the choice was to include the new thing as another planet (and probably eventually end up with several hundred planets) or get rid of it. They chose getting rid of it because it's behavior is so weird compared to all the other planets (orbit out of the plane of the solar system, crosses orbits with Neptune, moon is half it's size, Pluto itself is smaller than several moons).
When I was attending NMSU in Las Cruces, I took a first year Astronomy course. One day, during the course of the semester, my buddy and I found ourselves having to see the instructor. We had missed a class due to 'research' that had kept us out late in Juarez the night before. On our way in to give our mea culpas before our instructor, we passed an open door. The office beyond was lit by a dust glowing shaft of light, and impossibly filled with old texts, literally from floor to ceiling. At the center was a massive desk covered in stacks of additional books and papers. Sitting at the desk, quietly working was an old gentleman who seemed fairly engrossed in what he was going about. We repented before our instructor and picked up our 'catch up' assignments and I couldn't help but ask about the gentleman in the room. She said "Oh, that's Clyde. He discovered Pluto. Ask him if he's not busy, and you can talk to him about it.".
As it turned out, he was busy that day, but he remembered me and my interest a while later when we crossed paths and ending up signing my astronomy text near the section describing his discovery. He also discovered a bunch of asteroids and stayed in 'Cruces after he retired. He passed away there and when I heard the news about NM fighting to re-instate Pluto's status, I immediately thought of the honorable nod it would give to Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of planet X (Pluto) and in the end...a New Mexican.
A big part of the reclassification had to due with discoveries of additional objects in the same size range and region of space. Their composition more closely resembled comets than planets.
It was demoted to a dwarf planet because it is smaller than previously thought, about the size of the Moon. Some of the other planets' moons are bigger than Pluto. The reclassification sorta sticks in my craw too, but I understand the logic.
Yeah, I understand the logic too - I keep having to tell my "inner-Spock" to go back to his room. The whole line between planets & moons is so blurred anyway. Anyway, I just hope Neptune and Pluto can work out their [orbital] problems. p.s. Nice story above, Zia.
The whole line between planets & moons is so blurred anyway.
How is the line between planets and moons blurred? I was under the impression that a moon orbited a planet. Unless you're saying that planets should technically be "moons" of their star.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ziaAirmac
A big part of the reclassification had to due with discoveries of additional objects in the same size range and region of space. Their composition more closely resembled comets than planets.
Rather, things in the Kuiper Belt (or Oort Cloud) become comets when they whack into something else out there and start falling inwards toward the sun. And some of them settle down as asteroids once they've gotten a sooty enough coating to prevent the sun from cooking off any more of their surface.
when I heard the news about NM fighting to re-instate Pluto's status, I immediately thought of the honorable nod it would give to Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of planet X (Pluto) and in the end...a New Mexican.
Good enough for me. Pluto is still a planet in my book!
And I like the idea that the NM legislature did something positively controversial for a change
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Pluto, New Mexico and Clyde
