Space Oddities

[irishgrl]

ok so who besides me is fuming about Pluto being downgraded as a planet?

I mean, it has a moon doesnt it? It orbits our Sun doesnt it? Its nearly round right? But apparently it doesnt clear its orbital path--it overlaps with Neptune......so for this it gets downgraded???

I was looking for planetary pics and came across these:






I guess thats good for starters....................

oh and the article I read said this Pluto debate aint over YET..............

here's an excerpt:

Stern, in charge of the robotic probe on its way to Pluto, said the language of the resolution is flawed. It requires that a planet "has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." But Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune all have asteroids as neighbors.

"It's patently clear that Earth's zone is not cleared," Stern told SPACE.com. "Jupiter has 50,000 trojan asteroids," which orbit in lockstep with the planet.

Stern called it "absurd" that only 424 astronomers were allowed to vote, out of some 10,000 professional astronomers around the globe.

"It won't stand," he said. "It's a farce."

Stern said astronomers are already circulating a petition that would try to overturn the IAU decision.