Avebury & the Marlborough Downs forum 64 room
Image by Littlestone
Avebury & the Marlborough Downs

Edward Duke's Mundane System

close
more_vert
PeterH P
PeterH Jul 30, 2005 12:57:20
Replying to Littlestone

Off topic perhaps and I know nothing about new planets, but my son read somewhere that Pluto has been down graded and is no longer a planet. Apparently it's a chunk of ice so doesn't qualify as a planet. Seems daft to me - if we can have gas giants why not frozen water dwarfs? It still orbits the sun, but then so do comets don't they? Well off topic so I'll shut up.

R Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 30, 2005 13:04:27
Replying to PeterH

It's not soo off topic as some offtopics. Besides, the heavens must have been all the more obvious to our non-urban ancestors (as the night sky is in the quieter parts of Britain yet) - comets and stars and planets - stories and omens, aligning stones with them etc etc.

L Littlestone
Littlestone Jul 30, 2005 13:06:20
Replying to PeterH

>...Pluto has been down graded and is no longer a planet.<

Evidently there is some debate about the status of Pluto and, "The new discovery (of Sedna) will reignite the debate about what constitutes a planet. One group of astronomers believe that Pluto is not a true planet but merely one of the largest of a vast number of minor objects in the outer Solar System. The alternative standpoint is that Pluto is a planet and those who believe that will have to classify Sedna as the 10th planet."*

* http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3511678.stm