Xena and Gabrielle among the stars

[ewx]

[Poll #805455]

Pluto just lost.

Comments

[emperor]

They should just grandfather in Pluto, and have done with it.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I was somewhat of that point of view until it was pointed out that it wouldn't be the first object to be downgraded from planetary status.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

There are only eight known planets in the Solar System; I've been saying for years.

The interesting option you missed out is the super-Jovian mass object in the Oort cloud hypothesised as the gravitational source of long-time comets (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/467572.stm). (I call it Krishna.)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't know about it. Still, it doesn't seem entirely unfair to exclude something that it's at best predicted to exist rather than known to in the way all the others are. Granted spotting it might be tricky...

[emperor]

...were any of those in the solar system, though?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Apparently Ceres was originally termed a planet.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

What does pseudomonas have against Jupiter (being the only person (or bacterium) to have voted for the Earth but not also Jupiter)?

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Especially since the original definition of planet included Jupiter, but excluded Earth.

(Earth obviously not being something that wandered around the sky.)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Some people, I don't know if any seriously, say there's some fusion in Jupiter, and it's a star?

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

With what evidence? The dividing criteria between jovians and brown dwarfs is normally taken as the latter (a) being dense enough to undergo helium fusion (for a brief period) and (thereafter) convecting. I don't see much (surface) evidence of Jupiter convecting, and it's way below the gravity threshold for helium fusion; which is not to say it might not have been able to do other more esoteric forms of fusion, but if that ever happened, it was very briefly, and a very long time ago, and wouldn't have constituted more than a flash in the planet.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I've no idea. As I say, I don't know if anyone takes it at all seriously. But I've heard it, which is more than any other explanation for Jupiter not being a planet I've.

[krabbe.livejournal.com]

2001 DA42.

Because.

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

I'm not voting for Juptirer. It may not be a brown dawrf now, but once our office plan to piss of the IAU by crashing Saturn into it happens...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Don't try this at home, kids!

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

I think the phrase, "Make sure you've got an irresponsible demiurge to help you," would be appropriate.

[fanf]

These people believe that 2010 is true?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I meant to include "people who've read 2010" as well as "people who think it happens but haven't proof" in the "non-serious" category, but wasn't sure how to phrase it...

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

And preferably one with a bit more competency than whoever arranged the last attempt (http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/image41.html).

[naath.livejournal.com]

I like the 'insensitive clod' option