So, When Can We Call Pluto a Planet Again?

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Puppetcancer's avatar
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I read on NASA's website about the news regarding asteroid 2004 BL86. Apparently this asteroid has a moon of its own, and it's not uncommon for asteroids of a certain size to have a moon or two orbiting them. I'll admit I did not know this. Cool!

Not to sound like I'm holding a grudge, but did anybody besides me hear about 2004 BL86's moon and instantly wonder if we all deserve an apology after Pluto got demoted from "planet" to "dwarf planet"?

(That STILL bugs me. They couldn't think of any better term than "dwarf planet"? Then they wouldn't even name the next furthest object and its moon by its discoverer's choices. Namely, astronomer Mike Brown referred to them as Xena and Gabrielle. Instead the IAU names them Eris and Dysnomia. #$%@&. Eris?!? Granted, I like the sound of Dysnomia, and the older Greek translation is "lawlessness". I wonder if the IAU did that as a way of apologizing to Mr. Brown? i.e. Xena was played by actress Lucy Lawless. Renaming the moon, Gabrielle, as "lawlessness" does have a poetically just ring to it.)

Yeah, mentally I get why Pluto isn't a planet anymore (It's orbit doesn't clear its own path, and from a bird's-eye-view Pluto's orbit isn't a concentric ring like the actual planets are. At least that definition holds for future objects.) Yet, emotionally it still kinda irks me whenever I'm reminded that Pluto was kicked off the chess team for not being planet-y enough, moreso when other objects like that asteroid can even have moons. (Having a moon used to be a major reason why we called Pluto a planet for so long. It was like being an actor and winning an Oscar. If you've got an Oscar, you're an actor, period. Moons were like that.) :-)

Still, I'll bet it would tick off a lot of entertainers if one day the academy walked up to them and told them they didn't win an Oscar back in 1967. "Actually, you won a Dwarf Oscar." That would be a slap in the face.
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MandiLoriAnn's avatar
And I reread this and all I can think of is our Valentine's Day museum trip, wandering through the space exhibit.  Best Valentine's Day EVER.


Love,
MLP