Either we now have to learn like 21 planets in elementary school (hard) or Pluto gets a technical demotion (easy).

Pluto is still a planet in all our hearts, this is just humanities constant march of trying to become more and more accurate and precise with time

Oh, plutodrama is still going on. What is the current definition of planet?

Teaching the dwarf planets could be fun, though. What about thebfact that Pluto and Charon orbit one another, and how you could build a space elevator directly from.the surface of one to.the other?

More recently, the campaign has taken on a populist tinge, with Trump’s Nasa administrator, Jared Isaacman, telling a congressional committee in April that he was in favour of a rethink. “I am very much in the camp of Make Pluto a Planet Again,” he said.

I think this says all that needs to be said about it.

Orbits the sun, has enough gravity to form a sphere and has cleared it's orbit. It's the clearing the orbit part where Pluto fails, as do Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. And also Quaoar, Orcus, Ixion, Varuna, Sedna, Gonggong, Salacia, Varda, Hygiea and Vesta. They all orbit in basically an asteroid field.

So a coin stops being money if tossed to a garbage pile? :)

Do the Trojan asteroid clusters in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 points still count as “clearing its orbit”?

What if there were a second planet-sized body there?

no. I really wish non scientists would stay out of details like what is actual medicine or classification of astronimical objects.

Trump is literally just doing sitcom bits now

There are mathematical formulae for defining it and the dwarf planets have orders of magnitude lower values in comparison to planets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_the_neighbourhood

A forged coin isn't money despite seeming like it is at first glance.

Clearing the orbit is a very shorthand version of the meaning. If it was literal, nothing could be a planet as there's always something in every orbital path. It means the planet is massive enough to be the dominant thing within its orbit.

Pluto is real. The only problem with it -- it being in the garbage belt and not in a separate orbit. Or is there something else?

If the coin is so big that you don't notice the garbage, it's money. If you have to sift through the garage to find the coin, it's just worthless loose change.

Pluto in a tiny squeaky voice: "yes"

wait what? how would that be possible

Betteridge, in a Doctor Manhattan voice: "No."

I'm no scientist, but it's a pretty obvious no if you understand the reason it's no longer considered a planet.

Space is really huge and it might be possible that the theoretical space elevator would never strike another celestial body.

This is 100% speculative and I have absolutely not done any fact checking other than the fact that space is indeed, really Big McLargeHuge.

Pretty sure there's an Aesop Rock song about this...

oh yeah and me to but I have been technically a scientist at times. Still many people can understand it but some I don't think even want to. They want to hand wave it away and go with their feelings about what should be a planet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_I_Killed_Pluto_and_Why_It_Had_It_Coming

More recently, the campaign has taken on a populist tinge, with Trump’s Nasa administrator, Jared Isaacman, telling a congressional committee in April that he was in favour of a rethink. “I am very much in the camp of Make Pluto a Planet Again,” he said.

Well, forged coins are also "real". They can be identical to authentic coins but still be counterfeit.

Position very much matters to planets or else large moons would be planets.

Just link planets to the star and there won't be any problems with "large moons".

Everyone forgets Pallas.

Oh, so just another faux-populist distraction. I don't even see the epstein files comments anymore here

searches

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking

However, if both the difference in mass between the two bodies and the distance between them are relatively small, each may be tidally locked to the other; this is the case for Pluto and Charon

They're apparently tidally-locked, so that's one issue out of the way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(moon)

Periapsis: 19 592.61 km

Apoapsis: 19 598.92 km

Eccentricity: 0.000161[10]

So it's pretty close to a circular orbit.

Orbital period: (6 d, 9 h, 17 m)

But it'd still have to change length by about 6 km every 3 Earth days.

It's too late, I'm already going up.

Top! Of! The! Well! Sir!

Pluto is still a planet in all our hearts

My heart pumps blood. My brain does the thinking. Pluto is not a planet. So what? It's still fascinating.

Pluto and Charon are tidally locked, meaning they always face each other as they orbit around. Romanticizing a bit, they are like dancers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU5pQWQRxak

I'm your moon, you're my moon,

We go round and round.

From out here, it's the rest of the world that looks so small.

Promise me you will always remember who you are.

Labels can be helpful for categorizing, organizing our knowledge. Labels do not define us. We're all space stuff.

But it’d still have to change length by about 6 km every 3 Earth days.

Maybe this is crazy, but make it a giant jumprope. When they're closer together, the jumprope makes a tighter circle and spins faster. When they're further apart, the jumprope makes a larger circle. Put a weight in the middle so it has enough centripetal force to keep the rope taut.

Trust me, it works, I thought about it for two minutes.

The raven remembers

If humanity ever were to have the means to build a 12.2k mile or 19.7k km elevator in space between two planets at the far reach of the solar system, I would assume that we would also be capable of somehow making it longer

Gonggong

The gorilla from Super Monkey Ball?

Just because it's the only one discovered by an American... Typical.

You hear about Pluto? That's messed up right?

if you wanna call Pluto a a planet, do it. The IAU is not going to arrest you or something.

The argument that Pluto would be a planet if it were in a different orbital track is pretty disingenuous, because in a different orbital track it might also be a moon of Jupiter or just flung out into interstellar space.

And the sun is flat. Fight me.

Mercury: sweats

Everything sweats (or boils) that close to the sun.

Mercury is an interesting case. While there are some moons that are larger than it, they aren't nearly as dense. Its surface gravity is only a little less than Mars, even though its smaller in size, so it has potential for orbital domination. The Sun certainly helps in keeping other objects clear, but that shouldn't be part of the equation, if Mercury qualifies as a planet it should be able to do it in any orbit. I wonder if you put Mercury where Ceres is and ran for a few millennia what would happen?

You think the sun is flat?

Bro... The UNIVERSE is flat.

Didn't china now have a law where any chucklefuck without a degree can't talk about science or medicine on social media to curb dipshit takes?

Do the Trojan asteroid clusters in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 points still count as “clearing its orbit”?

What if there were a second planet-sized body there?

I would say in that example:

• Jupiter is the dominant mass making it be the planet.
• Anything in the Lagrangian points would not be planets specifically because anything in those points are there because of Jupiter and its orbit, not in spite of it.

not sure im willing to go that far but boy is it annoying.

This is the song let me forgive science for what they did to Pluto. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wrJ6_GAprFE

Gotta think that's less (ratio wise) than expansion joints in bridges.