The scientist have agreed that for an object to be classified a planet it must satisfy the following conditions:
- It must be in orbit around the Sun
- it must be large enough that it takes on a nearly round shape
- it has cleared its orbit of other objects
This is just another example of the small guy getting stepped on! It's blatantly discriminatory. Why hasn't Neptune been declassified under these new rules? After all if Plutos orbit overlaps Neptune then, if we get technical, surely both have failed to clear their orbits of other objects?
Damn elitist scientists!
2 comments:
Size matters
My very eager mother just served us nine
Still works
Hi Tuathal and Simon,
Pluto isn't really getting picked on for being the little guy. It's the way Pluto was formed that caused it to be rejected.
The newly accepted theory is based on formation mechanism - it's now been accepted that planets are formed in a disk. The planets 'gobble up' all the matter around them and in this way 'clear their orbit'. Pluto hasn't done this, even though it's the right shape and orbits the host star. It's been relegated to a disk by-product.
Sorry for the blathering - I was at meetings leading up to this decision and my colleague was at this last one (and was allowed to vote in it).
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