RIP: Pluto

"My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets"

Does the above mnemonic ring a bell? Yeah, you got it right! This is the famous mnemonic that we as children used to remember the nine planets in our solar system.

The news is that this very educated mother will hereafter just show us "Nine". The recent decision of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to give Pluto the pink slip can be truly considered as a significant event in the astronomical chronology. And Pluto's offence that caused to lose its "planet" status? Its oblong orbit intersects the orbit of Neptune, which is non-conformant to the new minimum requirements for a planet.

Astronomers may have stripped off the status of a planet from Pluto, but astrologers would still continue to be unswerving about their beliefs about the planet and its effect on earthly events. Both astronomy and astrology have been subjects that are closely related to each other, and there are so many people who believe in astrology just because it has a solid and scientific foundation in astronomy. And decisions such as this one by IAU would not only widen the gap between these two subjects, but also shake many people's faith and belief in astrology.

Big deal..! Should you really worry? Not necessary, unless you're a Scorpio, which is supposed to be ruled by planet Pluto. I'm not interested to do an impact analysis of this "official exclusion of Pluto from the solar system", with respect to the fate of astrology, but it would be interesting to see the children of future generations read about the "8 planets of the solar system".

Children of the future might still be able to relate to Pluto, if not as a planet of the solar system, at least as the faithful friend of Walt Disney's character, Mickey Mouse!

Posted on: Aug 25, 2006

Posted by: jayzspeak

Category: Personal

Permanent link to this entry

Comments:

Pluto is pretty sad and asked me to design a t-shirt about it: http://www.comboutique.com/pluto

Posted by jambo on August 26, 2006 at 12:13 AM IST #

I mean come on! We have lived with nine planets since the 1930's. Pluto is there; it is not a figment of anyone’s imagination. It is round and it orbits the sun… sorry folks no mystery here ... Pluto is the ninth planet!!! What is a mystery to me is, how a select group of people have somehow appointed themselves the governing body to determine whether or not Pluto is a planet… I didn’t vote for any of them did you? So what do to? Hey, there are more of us then them, and if we quite simply demand, no make that refuse to accept their decision, then Pluto remains a planet. Doesn’t this fall under the majority rules category? I mean isn’t this, basically the same fiasco that happened years ago; when the self-proclaimed scientific community was telling the entire planet it would switch over to the Metric System by end of the decade… well guess what the majority in the United States, us, decided we didn’t want to and we didn’t. We can do it again! I mean we are not talking about a physical application that will change the universe as we know it, rather they have merely, based on their, granted well educated merits, arbitrarily decided what constitutes a planet. It does not change the physics of the universe, merely the way we catalog it. Well I say NO! So here is my own set of rules governing what is a planet: Rambalog’s Law of Planets 1) Does it Orbit a Sun? The celestial object must rotate around a sun in a consistent trajectory that does not deviate more than predetermined percentage every orbit. If it orbits a planet, hello, it’s a moon! 2) Is it Round? The Object must be spherical, and not deviate more than predetermined percentage from being a perfect sphere. If not it is a big ice cube or rock. 3) Is it Bigger then a Breadbox? The object must be large enough to maintain a gravitational pull sufficient to trap in orbit or attract to the surface a predetermined size object traveling at a predetermined speed, from a predetermined distance. I will leave the predetermined part up those scientists…give them something to do. Stand up, be counted, email everyone, blog everyone, call talk shows, print bumper stickers and T-Shirts… “Pluto is a Planet!” www.rambalog.com

Posted by Gary Edwards on September 03, 2006 at 08:38 PM IST #

HAY I TOTALLY THINK THIS IS STUPID I MEAN PEOPLE CAN JUST APPOINT THEMSELVES AS GODS OF ASTRONOMY AN STRIP POOR PLUTO FROM ITS WELL DESERVD STATUS WHAT EVER THEY ARE AT I DONT UNDERSTAND SO NOW PLUTO IS NOT A PLANET THEN HOW CAN EARTH AS WELL AS JUPITER BE A PLANET????? THIS JUST PUZZLES ME THAT WE KNOW NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT PLUTO.

Posted by AKSHATA on September 14, 2007 at 07:47 PM IST #

testing

Posted by anuja on July 24, 2009 at 04:12 PM IST #

Post a Comment:
  • HTML Syntax: NOT allowed

This blog copyright 2009 by jayzspeak