Celestial bodies.

[fenris]

You're probably heard in the news recently that astronomers are debating whether to declare that Pluto isn't actually a planet, due to the discovery of various other objects within our solar system that are bigger than Pluto is.

One possible solution that's being considered is to grant Pluto and several of the objects the status of being 'plutons' - a new definition that would mean they're smaller than planets but bigger than asteroids

Over 800 potential 'plutons' have been discovered in the Kuiper Belt, the region of space beyond Neptune. Here are some of them (Quotation marks denote temporary names);

"Xena" - diameter 3000km
Pluto - 2320km
Sedna - 1800km
"Easterbunny" - 1700km
Orcus - 1500km
"Santa" - 1500km
Quaoar - 1250km
Charon - 1200km
"Buffy" - 750km
Chaos - 750km
Varuna - 600km
Huya - 600km
Ixion - 500km
Deucalion - 500km
"Gabrielle" (moon of "Xena") - 250km
Rhadamanthus - 150km
Hylonome - 100km
Asbolus - 70km
Okkyrhoe - 25km

Personally, I think It's a damn shame that "Xena" and it's moon "Gabrielle" are going to be renamed (killjoy astronomers!), especially as there's a large asteroid in the belt orbiting Jupiter that is officially named Callisto.

[kittygobonkers]

How can they strip Pluto of its planetary status....its ridiculous. I say leave lil old Pluto alone its been called a Planet for god knows how many years why change it now. I guess we will find out its fate later this month.

Planet X should so be called Xena thats so cool.

[krusty ketchup]

Hehe lol loving the whole Xena/Gabrielle/Callisto thing. Very funny!

[Kneetroll]

I don't. I think it's kinda tacky naming them after a third-rate TV show I know the show itself is based on mythological characters, but that's not what people reference them to.

What happened to naming them after great Roman/Greek/etc Gods that were meant to have existed? That's like naming it Buffy. Eck.

And Pluto will always be Pluto in my book. They shouldn't rename it. They're just picking on it cos it's the smallest!

[kittygobonkers]

Third rate TV show!!!!!!!!!!! *bites lip*

Although it would be cool to name it Xena i do also believe that they should stick to naming them after roman/greek gods.....I think planet X should be named Morpheus

[krusty ketchup]

kittygobonkers said:

Third rate TV show!!!!!!!!!!! *bites lip*

*nods and agrees*

Oi missy! Xena was brilliant!

[DreamDangerously]

Xena had both self depreciating humour and more importantly far less of a stick up it's arse when it came to moralising the way many US TV shows feel the need to.


Plus, much as everyone goes on about the musical episode of Buffy, I believe it was the first show to have a sung episode!

(Xena is deffinitely a guilty pleasure!)

[krusty ketchup]

Oh yey! I forgot about that! Once more with feeling was definitley a lovely thing, but Xena did it first!

[kittygobonkers]

They did it.......they only went and took away the planetary status of Pluto!!!!!!!!!!!! for more than sixty years thats been called a planet and now some geeks with nothing better to do have deemed it too small to be a planet!!!! Oooooo i'm mad

[DreamDangerously]

how ridiculous is it....poor old Pluto

[krusty ketchup]

Hey! That's just plain rude!
Now = my very easy method just speeds up naming.............nothing! Seriously how will kids remember the planets now?

[fenris]

It is a shame, but I can understand the cold, hard logic behind their decision.

[kittygobonkers]

well regardless of what they say i will always see Pluto as a planet. They should've kept it that way just for sentimental reasons, what harm would it have done

[fenris]

A few days ago U.S. President Obama announced that due to ongoing worldwide economic hardships, he's cutting back on NASA's budget, and this effectively means that they'll have to cancel their programme for a manned mission to Mars. GOOD. Let's be honest - there's not one real good reason to send anyone to Mars. We already know all that's really important to know about the place: it's big, red, dusty and dead. Anything else that we still have to learn about it can be easily discovered through the use of unmanned probes. The only reason NASA wanted to sent people there was because since the mid-Eighties they've been reduced to being little more than a high-profile commercial satellite-launching service, and they want to revive the glory days when they were seen as dynamic explorers and pioneers (I actually found it immensely amusing when The X-Files made UFOlogy sexy in the early Nineties, and numerous NASA scientists - who previously would have been committing career suicide even publicly speculating about the possibility of there once being intelligent life on Mars - all lined up to push the idea, in the hope of sparking off public support for a Mars mission).
But in truth, even NASA's golden era in the Sixties and Seventies was little more than a massive and mindbogglingly expensive public relations exercise. The entire Space Race was just a petty, ego-boosting game of Cold War oneupmanship. Just as there's no real reason to go to Mars, there was never any good reason to walk on the Moon either. NASA were desperate to get there first, just so America could finally thumb it's nose at the dastardly, godless Reds.
True, the amount that the U.S, spends on NASA each year is peanuts compared to the trillions that it routinely throws away on fruitless and never-ending defence research programmes*, but it's still millions of dollars that would be better spent down here, rather than up there.


* remember Reagan's beloved Star Wars weapons programme? A classic white elephant. One of the first things Clinton did upon entering the White House was cancel the whole thing. Unfortunately, one of the first things Dubya did when he got elected was revive it. It's still gobbling up vast amounts of American taxpayers' money with no end in sight, has yet to produce anything remotely operational, and scientists worldwide are united in their belief that it'll never work. In fact, the only scientists who insist it will work are those actually working on the project and earning megabuck salaries. Funny that...