Is Pluto a planet?

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I agree. It was a planet when I went to school and I say it still is.
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Even the "Laws of Gravity" change given the right circumstances (sub-atomic level).

All of Man's definitions and laws change to fit the everchanging data -aka. facts. Nothing is constant in science. Some needy grad student or college professor is always coming out with a "NEW" explanation of how or why something works when the evidence no longer fits their life model. Just sayin'...
 
Shhhh... Pluto really is a planet, but he is "flying under the radar" so to speak. Pluto, being the god of the Underworld, gets most of his work done behind the scenes. All of these distractions, like the recent (last 30 yrs or so) discovery of other pluto-like planets in the Kuiper belt, are a trick to fool mortals on Earth. He is so sneaky! He slowly tip toes around the outer perimeter of the solar system taking 248 earth-years to complete an orbit. Pluto is the ruling planet of the astrological (not astronomical) sign of Scorpio and Halloween is his secret holiday.

In Greek mythology, Pluto kidnapped Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, the Goddess of the harvest and Zeus (aka Jupiter). Demeter was so distraught, that the world fell into perpetual winter. To make a long story short, some feats went down, and a deal was struck and now Persephone spends half of the year with her mother (the summer) and the the other half with Pluto in the Underworld (winter).

So the way I see it, trying to convince us he doesn't exist (as a god or a planet) is his dirtiest trick.
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ray's two cents :

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not really planets orbit the sun, moons orbit planets.........not sure how large they need to be a planet, but i was taught pluto was the smallest planet.........but alot of thing have changed over the years.

like gay mean you were a happy person .....now it means you are homosexual. mouse was a little grey critter , now a tool to move a pointer on a computer. sure the old surfers would not want to surf into a net......that good way to drown.

sorry just those things that make you say hum

This reminds me of something I saw somewhere online... how times have changed!

http://files.witnessthis.co.za/2011/07/New-Alphabet-Chart.jpg

I love it Ray that is awesome, the day when A stood for apple (the food) is over. Just like my kids
think that popcorn has always been made in the microwave.
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Then you don't understand the term "scientific." Part of being scientific means that when new evidence is discovered, ideas will be modified. "Dogma" is adhering to an idea no matter what new evidence is discovered.

When Pluto was first discovered, it was because "something" was affecting the orbit of another planet so that it didn't fit with a mathematical model based on what was known. Then basically someone spotted a big chunk of something out there, and said "oh, look...a new planet...that explains it all." As we were able to look further out there, we realized that there is a belt of "big chunks of something" that are really too small to be planets, and that Pluto was really just one of these.

Sorry if changing the term applied to a big chunk of something way out there in space because what we now know indicates that it doesn't fit the definition of the term upsets some people, but this was done by the same community that first introduced us to the previously unknown big chunk of something out there. So I really don't think anyone OUTSIDE that community has much of a say in whether Pluto is a planet or isn't one -- because until one of them found it and said something, no one even knew it was there. In other words, this isn't a matter of public opinion -- it either fits the definition or it doesn't.

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not really planets orbit the sun, moons orbit planets.........not sure how large they need to be a planet, but i was taught pluto was the smallest planet.........but alot of thing have changed over the years.

like gay mean you were a happy person .....now it means you are homosexual. mouse was a little grey critter , now a tool to move a pointer on a computer. sure the old surfers would not want to surf into a net......that good way to drown.

sorry just those things that make you say hum

Pluto orbits the sun. Has a strange orbit, but orbits and the only thing you need to be classified as a planet is to be in outer space and orbit the sun.

You are incorrect. The definition of a planet includes the body being massive enough to be rounded as a result of its own gravity, but not so massive that it initiates thermonuclear fusion (like a star), and it has cleared its revolving path of debris by colliding and/or combining with the relatively smaller bodies. Pluto does not satisfy all those requirements as we have investigated further, thus it has been relegated to the status of a "dwarf planet" along with the more newly discovered Haumea.

These are the terms as the scientists have defined them. The data they collect are used to determine how things fit their definitions. If the data they collect indicates that something doesn't fit their definitions, then they change the designation. Public opinion really doesn't matter.

And really, neither do the terms we use to describe them -- they were there for billions of years before an organism on Earth evolved and developed technology to even know they were there. And that really sets things into perspective, doesn't it?

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