Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate
  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
    9·
    vor 13 Stunden

    The argument that Pluto would be a planet if it were in a different orbital track is pretty disingenuous, because in a different orbital track it might also be a moon of Jupiter or just flung out into interstellar space.

  • TheJesusaurus@piefed.caEnglish
    41·
    vor 21 Stunden

    Either we now have to learn like 21 planets in elementary school (hard) or Pluto gets a technical demotion (easy).

    Pluto is still a planet in all our hearts, this is just humanities constant march of trying to become more and more accurate and precise with time

    • SnoopSqueak@lemmy.today
      7·
      vor 16 Stunden

      Pluto is still a planet in all our hearts

      My heart pumps blood. My brain does the thinking. Pluto is not a planet. So what? It’s still fascinating.

      Pluto and Charon are tidally locked, meaning they always face each other as they orbit around. Romanticizing a bit, they are like dancers.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU5pQWQRxak

      I’m your moon, you’re my moon,

      We go round and round.

      From out here, it’s the rest of the world that looks so small.

      Promise me you will always remember who you are.

      Labels can be helpful for categorizing, organizing our knowledge. Labels do not define us. We’re all space stuff.

    • Fluffy Kitty Cat@slrpnk.netEnglish
      11·
      vor 20 Stunden

      Teaching the dwarf planets could be fun, though. What about thebfact that Pluto and Charon orbit one another, and how you could build a space elevator directly from.the surface of one to.the other?

        • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          vor 10 Stunden

          Pluto and Charon are mutually tidally locked, so they don’t rotate in relation to each other.

          Plus, in smaller bodies you don’t need impossibly strong materials to make a space elevator like you’d need for Earth. Hell, Kevlar fiber is strong enough to make a space elevator from the Moon to one of the Lunar Lagrange points due to the reduced gravity

        • _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          6·
          vor 19 Stunden

          Space is really huge and it might be possible that the theoretical space elevator would never strike another celestial body.

          This is 100% speculative and I have absolutely not done any fact checking other than the fact that space is indeed, really Big McLargeHuge.

          • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
            5·
            vor 16 Stunden

            searches

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking

            However, if both the difference in mass between the two bodies and the distance between them are relatively small, each may be tidally locked to the other; this is the case for Pluto and Charon

            They’re apparently tidally-locked, so that’s one issue out of the way.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(moon)

            Periapsis: 19 592.61 km

            Apoapsis: 19 598.92 km

            Eccentricity: 0.000161[10]

            So it’s pretty close to a circular orbit.

            Orbital period: (6 d, 9 h, 17 m)

            But it’d still have to change length by about 6 km every 3 Earth days.

            • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
              3·
              vor 16 Stunden

              But it’d still have to change length by about 6 km every 3 Earth days.

              Maybe this is crazy, but make it a giant jumprope. When they’re closer together, the jumprope makes a tighter circle and spins faster. When they’re further apart, the jumprope makes a larger circle. Put a weight in the middle so it has enough centripetal force to keep the rope taut.

              Trust me, it works, I thought about it for two minutes.

            • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
              1·
              vor 15 Stunden

              If humanity ever were to have the means to build a 12.2k mile or 19.7k km elevator in space between two planets at the far reach of the solar system, I would assume that we would also be capable of somehow making it longer

  • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    vor 20 Stunden

    More recently, the campaign has taken on a populist tinge, with Trump’s Nasa administrator, Jared Isaacman, telling a congressional committee in April that he was in favour of a rethink. “I am very much in the camp of Make Pluto a Planet Again,” he said.

    I think this says all that needs to be said about it.

  • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
    19·
    vor 20 Stunden

    no. I really wish non scientists would stay out of details like what is actual medicine or classification of astronimical objects.

    • ElDuderino@lemmus.orgEnglish
      14·
      vor 19 Stunden

      I’m no scientist, but it’s a pretty obvious no if you understand the reason it’s no longer considered a planet.

      • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
        6·
        vor 19 Stunden

        oh yeah and me to but I have been technically a scientist at times. Still many people can understand it but some I don’t think even want to. They want to hand wave it away and go with their feelings about what should be a planet.

    • VitoRobles@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1·
      vor 11 Stunden

      Didn’t china now have a law where any chucklefuck without a degree can’t talk about science or medicine on social media to curb dipshit takes?

  • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5·
    vor 18 Stunden

    More recently, the campaign has taken on a populist tinge, with Trump’s Nasa administrator, Jared Isaacman, telling a congressional committee in April that he was in favour of a rethink. “I am very much in the camp of Make Pluto a Planet Again,” he said.

    nobody cares about your opinion

    • 🌸𝓯𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻🌸@sh.itjust.works
      15·
      vor 20 Stunden

      Orbits the sun, has enough gravity to form a sphere and has cleared it’s orbit. It’s the clearing the orbit part where Pluto fails, as do Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. And also Quaoar, Orcus, Ixion, Varuna, Sedna, Gonggong, Salacia, Varda, Hygiea and Vesta. They all orbit in basically an asteroid field.

      • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        vor 20 Stunden

        Do the Trojan asteroid clusters in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 points still count as “clearing its orbit”?

        What if there were a second planet-sized body there?

        • spartanatreyu@programming.dev
          2·
          vor 10 Stunden

          Do the Trojan asteroid clusters in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 points still count as “clearing its orbit”?

          What if there were a second planet-sized body there?

          I would say in that example:

          • Jupiter is the dominant mass making it be the planet.
          • Anything in the Lagrangian points would not be planets specifically because anything in those points are there because of Jupiter and its orbit, not in spite of it.
        • Rhaedas@fedia.io
          2·
          vor 19 Stunden

          Clearing the orbit is a very shorthand version of the meaning. If it was literal, nothing could be a planet as there’s always something in every orbital path. It means the planet is massive enough to be the dominant thing within its orbit.

            • Rhaedas@fedia.io
              1·
              vor 11 Stunden

              Mercury is an interesting case. While there are some moons that are larger than it, they aren’t nearly as dense. Its surface gravity is only a little less than Mars, even though its smaller in size, so it has potential for orbital domination. The Sun certainly helps in keeping other objects clear, but that shouldn’t be part of the equation, if Mercury qualifies as a planet it should be able to do it in any orbit. I wonder if you put Mercury where Ceres is and ran for a few millennia what would happen?