New Moon for Pluto

[JamesF]

I've not seen this mentioned elsewhere:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18803212

James

[WaveSoarer]

Thanks for sharing this James. I'd missed the article. I wonder if these new moons will get names after the fly-by.

[Naemeth]

It's amazing how after all this time, we still don't even know all the moons in the Solar System. I do wonder if this moon will now be targeted for New Horizons (just a few pictures or something small, I can't imagine it's easy to orbit something that small) which is on it's way to Pluto (arriving in 2015!).

[ChrisThePuma]

Aparantly it was discovered by steam - is this a new technique that we dont know about?

"The moons form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls," said Mark Showalter from the Seti Institute in Mountain View, US, the leader of the steam that discovered the new moon."

[light_bucket]

Thanks for posting the link. A great article and backs up my belief that Pluto should still be a full planet

Thanks

Dave

[nmoushon]

You would think with 5 moons that they would reinstate Pluto as a planet......still ticked off about that.

[sologuitarist61]

I've not seen this mentioned elsewhere:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-18803212

James

Must admit I am so out of touch planet-wise that I still thought it only had Charon as a moon

Aparantly it was discovered by steam - is this a new technique that we dont know about?

"The moons form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls," said Mark Showalter from the Seti Institute in Mountain View, US, the leader of the steam that discovered the new moon."

Very good!

Thanks for posting the link. A great article and backs up my belief that Pluto should still be a full planet

Thanks

Dave

Couldn't agree more - I think that decision made more people angry than it pleased.

[Naemeth]

Unfortunately, Pluto does not satisfy the criteria for being a planet because it hasn't cleared the area, many KBO's have similar orbits. I also think it's probably not massive enough to be a planet, but I could be wrong on that one.

[sologuitarist61]

Unfortunately, Pluto does not satisfy the criteria for being a planet because it hasn't cleared the area, many KBO's have similar orbits. I also think it's probably not massive enough to be a planet, but I could be wrong on that one.

My argument to that would be that this definition is a man made invention (as indeed was the word 'planet'), and to please a few astronomers who thought they knew better, it was changed and upset years of history and common usage. Ask the man in the street and they still think of Pluto as a planet (if they een know that Pluto isn't a cartoon dog), and they will say 'of course', and indeed so will I and always will.

It is big it is circular, it goes around the sun, and it has satellites of its own, tell me how that differs from Mars, Earth, Jupiter et al?

[JamesF]

The man in the street is really quite welcome to carry on calling Pluto a planet. It really isn't a big deal. All they did was define what "planet" means when used in a scientific sense and there are plenty of words that have different meanings when used in the scientific community compared with when they're used by the layman. Presumably the layman will also call Eris, Makemake and errm, Hum-thingy planets too once it becomes more common knowledge that they exist. Which really isn't a big deal either as far as I'm concerned.

James

[Stephen]

Second time today I get to use this image

[Naemeth]

Pluto had only been a planet for 76 years, it's not like Neptune et al which have been planets for about 300+ years.

[symesie04]

Yes but you have to think how Pluto feels! Poor thing one day in the giddy heights of planetary acceptance and next stripped of dignity and demoted to a "object". Must have rocked it to its frozen core.

[sologuitarist61]

Pluto had only been a planet for 76 years, it's not like Neptune et al which have been planets for about 300+ years.

That might be because it was only discovered on February 18, 1930 - did when it was discovered make a difference? :huh:

[sologuitarist61]

Second time today I get to use this image

Not really very helpful though, is it?

[sologuitarist61]

Yes but you have to think how Pluto feels! Poor thing one day in the giddy heights of planetary acceptance and next stripped of dignity and demoted to a "object". Must have rocked it to its frozen core.

Mock all you want if it makes you feel better

[Evl]

I posted this yesterday morning.

Like the comments made before, I ididn't know that Pluto had more than 1 moon. I was surprised to read that another was added to the list.

Got me to thinking about it though, didn't Voyager pass by only a few years ago and wouldn't it have had the tech on board to analyise the moons around it?

[jason.p]

Does it actually make any practical difference (apart from sentimentality) how it is categorised? Does it get less funding for research etc. now it's been downgraded?

As far as I'm concerned I've always understood it was a planet, so to me it always will be.

If and when I actually see it, I'll put it down on my list of planets seen.

[Cath]

Tiz all just human semantics really. I too consider our dear little Pluto to still be a planet.

To be honest I consider anything big and round (unless it's a star etc) to be a planet. I see our moon as a planet rather than just a 'moon'.

I've never been one to follow convention though, I much prefer individuallity rather than the all too common drone'ness

[sologuitarist61]

Tiz all just human semantics really. I too consider our dear little Pluto to still be a planet.

To be honest I consider anything big and round (unless it's a star etc) to be a planet. I see our moon as a planet rather than just a 'moon'.

I've never been one to follow convention though, I much prefer individuality rather than the all too common drone'ness

That is very true Cath, which is just as well as I cannot see agreement ever being reached between those who want it as a planet and those that don't. As you probably noticed, I am quite passionate in my defence of it being a planet :laugh:

[Cath]

As you probably noticed, I am quite passionate in my defence of it being a planet :laugh:

Good on ya

Well whenever I look up and see our Moon in all it's glory, I think to myself 'amazing, look at that, their is actually another planet right there right next to us!' - espescially when I see it during the day time.

[lukebl]

'Planet' seems such an out-dated term, dating from ancient times when there where just 5 of them (obviously in those days even the earth, being the centre of the universe, wasn't considered to be something as mundane as a planet).

Now that we know there's a whole range of diverse objects from the size of a pea to the size of Jupiter orbiting the sun, what do labels mean anyway?. I mean, Earth and Jupiter are as different from each other as each is different from Pluto. Let them all be planets, or none of them! They're basically all different-sized bits of stuff orbiting the sun. To my highly scientific mind!

[rwilkey]

I agree that Pluto should not be classed as a planet, there are too many TNO's (trans-neptunian objects) out there, we'd be over-run with another 200 planets, give or take, not to talk of the great examples of Eris, Makemake, Sedna and so on. What about Asteroid Belt objects, Ceres for example, always accepted as a 'lesser' (dwarf) planet. The asteroid 243 Ida has a moon called Dactyl, would you make this asteroid a planet, though it obviously does not come within the 2006 criteria of the IAU, only because it has a moon? Pluto had to go in my opinion.

[Mr Q]

I posted another article on this subject yesterday in OBSERVING-WIDE FIELD...

Though the same info, my site has a survey on Pluto as a planet so go to it and vote!

[Double Kick Drum]

Pluto....planet or otherwise, it's getting quite busy in that neck of the solar system woods.