Context: For anyone who grew up before 2006, Pluto was the ninth planet. Then the International Astronomical Union changed the definition of a planet and poor Pluto got demoted to dwarf planet status. Now it's just a nostalgic memory, and Grandpa Simpson says it best.
Fun facts:
The Earth's moon is three times bigger than Pluto.
Jupiter has four moons larger than Pluto.
Saturn has a moon larger than Pluto.
And Neptune has a moon larger than Pluto.
In his time Ceres was also a planet so there were more then 9.
I always preferred the other definition of planet that would make the earth no longer have a moon - instead we would be a dual-planet system.
I'm not an astronomer and so my opinion was correctly ignored. I can still disagree with it.
I hate this "IT'S STILL A PLANET TO ME!" thing. How does our definition of made up words matter? Pluto is still Pluto, how we categorise stuff doesn't change that. We needed a better way to define things and needed to make that without having to keep all the celestial objects in our solar system defined as they were before.
Of all things that don't matter, whether Pluto is a planet matters the least. It's completely irrelevant.
But, also:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7963278-how-i-killed-pluto-and-why-it-had-it-coming
You'd think a book like this might be dry, and it is definitely not. Excellent read.
Maybe we'll find Planet X and have 9 again in the future.
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nothing :(
all 13 comments