# And then there were eight: Pluto no longer a planet **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 24, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036 "2006-08-24T14:05:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/61 "2006-08-24T23:01:49Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston] Now were going to have to revamp the mnemonic. Hmmm… [/QUOTE] When I was young, my mother taught me to remember the planets using: Mary’s Violet Eyes Make John Stay Up Nights. I asked where Pluto fit into that sentence. She thought for a second and said “Period!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/62 "2006-08-24T23:48:19Z")
I’m happy with the decision. The solar system feels a bit less crowded today, don’t you think? I think the teeth-gnashing was to be expected, and will die down quite swiftly. Sentimentality should have no place in science. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/63 "2006-08-25T00:06:13Z")
[QUOTE=araminty] I’m happy with the decision. The solar system feels a bit less crowded today, don’t you think? I think the teeth-gnashing was to be expected, and will die down quite swiftly. Sentimentality should have no place in science. [/QUOTE] But my view of the universe has changed! It’s hard to take. I can handle the discovery of new planets…that’s increasing our knowledge of the universe. But downgrading one? It’s realizing that science makes mistakes, and I’m sorry, but if pi turns out to have an end I’m going to have to go lie down. Now I can see why Corpurnicus and Galileo and all them were labeled as heretics. It’s hard wrapping your mind around something that was drilled into your head from third grade science is now wrong. Give me a couple of days, okay? I need to mourn the passing of Pluto from the ranks of Planets. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/64 "2006-08-25T00:50:11Z")
Won’t you all _please_ think of the Palanians! With Pluto demoted to “dwarf planet,” where will they live in our solar system? These _are_ methane breathers who live near absolute zero, and now we have no appropriate terrestrial-grade planets of the right frigid temperature for them to dwell on! ---
**Author:** ![katie1341](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/91b2a8/32.png) [@katie1341](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katie1341)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/65 "2006-08-25T01:00:24Z")
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos. I find it very distubing that They can just… deplanetize a planet. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Swan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Swan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Swan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/66 "2006-08-25T01:21:37Z")
[QUOTE=katie1341] I find it very distubing that They can just… deplanetize a planet. [/QUOTE] Well, they did planetize it in the first place. It’s kinda like the old Bill Cosby routine. When he used to tell his kids: “I brought you in this world, and I can take you out!” ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/67 "2006-08-25T02:02:37Z")
No need to be so melodramatic. Nothing about our knowledge of Pluto or science has changed at all. We’re just calling it something different. It’s not like we discovered Pluto is made of Jello or something. Whether it’s a planet or KBO or dwarf planet doesn’t change the fact that it’s still Pluto, and still mysterious and awesome. I’ve been a big fan of Pluto since 3rd grade when I did a report on it, while everyone else chose easy popular planets. I’m absolutely psyched about the New Horizons mission. It just works better that it’s not a planet. Instead of being the small fry, it’s one of the biggest things in its own domain, the Kuiper Belt. It belongs with its own kind! ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/68 "2006-08-25T02:02:37Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Nope. The prospect of having to add another 10 or 50 ‘planets’ to the solar system over the next few decades struck me as a route to diluting the meaning of the word to nothingness. [/QUOTE] Ditto. I always thought of the planets in our system as something special. I think they’re going to find dozens if not hundreds of bodies in hydrostatic equilibrium in the Kuiper belt in the next few decades. It kind of dulls the concept of a planet if you ask me. And why do people need a mnemonic to remember 8 planets? I remembered 9 when I was 5 or 6 years old without a nmemonic. I could probably list them in order of size when I was 7 or 8. Sure, I’ve always been an astronomy geek, but there really isn’t that much to memorize in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/69 "2006-08-25T02:08:05Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] There have been more than 100 updates to that article in the last 24 hours (not surprising that), and the version I see now says there are 8 planets – which conforms with the decision of the IAU today, and does not include Ceres, Pluto, Charon, or other Kuiper belt objects. [/QUOTE] Well, crud. They removed the dwarf planets from the list since I made the mnemonic. But AFAIK it’s still okay for both planets and dwarf planets. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/70 "2006-08-25T02:43:37Z")
[QUOTE=Draelin] I think it’s the astronomical equivalent of “You smaller celestial bodies, get off my lawn!” [/QUOTE] Ironically, it’s starting to look like this might be the best answer. I was reading an article where an astronomer was objecting to the definition, and he was saying that the requirement about “clearing the neighborhood of its orbit” is patently absurd, because there are asteroids all throughout the solar system, including some near Earth (Cruithne, anyone?), so you really can’t say that any planet has “cleared its neighborhood.” It looks like they were grasping for some reason why Pluto and Ceres shouldn’t be planets, and that was the best they could do. Really, I wouldn’t mind so much, except that they seem to be insisting that dwarf planets are not planets. Think about that for a second. Would you say that your cellular phone is not a phone? Would you say that a toy poodle is not a poodle? So why are they insisting that a dwarf planet is not a planet? It just seems so… mean-spirited. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/71 "2006-08-25T03:51:05Z")
Am I the only one thinking that this is \*really \*gonna piss off the **Astrologers**? 😃 Oooh, angry Astrologers backed by a legion of wrathful Scorpios who no longer have an associated planet. It’d make for a marvellous book concept. I can just imagine the bit where they storm the world’s great observatories … and their brutal terrorist acts with incense and aromatherapy. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/72 "2006-08-25T04:35:49Z")
[QUOTE=Diceman] Ironically, it’s starting to look like this might be the best answer. I was reading an article where an astronomer was objecting to the definition, and he was saying that the requirement about “clearing the neighborhood of its orbit” is patently absurd, because there are asteroids all throughout the solar system, including some near Earth (Cruithne, anyone?), so you really can’t say that any planet has “cleared its neighborhood.” [/QUOTE] But it seems to me that Cruithne and the various other asteroids are in some sort of orbital linkage with the planets, whereas the same can’t be said of Pluto and the other Kuiper belt objects, much like Ceres and the rest of the asteroid belt. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/73 "2006-08-25T05:05:53Z")
Well, because of this, I’m adding a new promise to my 2028 Presidential campaign: To restore Pluto’s true “planet” status. I’ll do this by tasking NASA to attach huge rockets to the _other_ “dwarf planets,” and slamming them into Pluto to correct it’s orbit, and add a bit of mass to it. The traditionalists come away happy, and I don’t undermine astrophysics by arbitarily rewriting scientific definitions…I’ll do it by arbitarily _rewriting the universe._ This project will also take care of my “Make Work” and nuclear disarmament plans, I think. Remember—Vote for Ranchoth in '28: “Don’t Neglect Ecology, _Dominate_ It.” ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/74 "2006-08-25T05:58:27Z")
**J** ames **S** imply **N** ever **M** uch **U** nderstood **M** indless **V** iolent **E** xercise Which is the how we were taught at school with **P** retty sandwiched between never and much ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/75 "2006-08-25T05:59:33Z")
Well i sure screwed up that coding :smack: ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/76 "2006-08-25T06:03:18Z")
[QUOTE=katie1341] I find it very distubing that They can just… deplanetize a planet. [/QUOTE] “I’m tellin’ ya’–Pluto should be right there, but all I read on the sensors is Trans-Neptunian debris…I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” “If you only knew the _ **POWER** _ of the IAU!” There is precedent for this, though. They [deplanetized a whole mess of planets](http://aa.usno.navy.mil/hilton/AsteroidHistory/minorplanets.html) back in the 19th century. (And back then they didn’t even have nuclear weapons or anything like that, either.) ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/77 "2006-08-25T06:11:36Z")
[QUOTE=Winston Smith] I always figued when Castro finally kicked the bucket, Cuba and Pluto would become the 51st and 52nd states (respectively). Snort. So much for _that_ theory. [/QUOTE] Why? Just because Texas is a planet (well, thinks it is, anyway…) all other new States have to be planets, as well? 😕 More seriously, add me to the “Pluto should never have been a planet” crowd. Justice is served (even if it’s with a side dish of some extremely unclear reasoning :smack: ) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2006, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/78 "2006-08-25T07:13:28Z")
[QUOTE=Pixisis] > [@Hal Briston](#): > > I have an idea – fuck 'em. Nah. Don’t do that. They might enjoy it. 😃 [/QUOTE] OK, so let’s fuck 'em in a way they don’t enjoy. I can offer an ex-bf who would have bored a mink… I’m naming my next dwarf in RPG’s Pluto. Or maybe I’ll make twins: Pluto and Charon. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/79 "2006-08-26T16:03:14Z")
My Very Excellent Man Just Showed Us Non-Pluto ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036/80 "2006-08-26T18:11:17Z")
I’ve always just remembered M.VEM JSUN’P. It’s weird, yes, but it works pretty well for me. And it’s pretty much the same now: M’VEM JSUN. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-then-there-were-eight-pluto-no-longer-a-planet/370036.md?page=5)