How Many Planets Are There in the Solar System?
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive August 2006:
How Many Planets Are There in the Solar System?
Well, now there are only 8! The astronomer's union has officially demoted Pluto! I don't know quite how I feel about it. They said if they had to include Pluto then there would be 20 or so other bodies that would qualify as planets. So, they agreed on a definition of a planet and Pluto didn't make the cut.
Ame
How funny, Ame! I was just coming here to post that!
It'll sure mess up all the songs and rhymes and such that children learn to remember the planets and their order!
Here's a link to an article:
Poor Pluto
After all of these years how can they just demote a planet?
You've got to be kidding me! That's going to cause an uproar!
LOL Adena. My first thought was, "What about the rhymes?" as well!
my very early mohter just sat upon nine....
LOL this has been a huge debate all week. To include pluto they talked about defining a planet based on size, etc...and to do that would of actually included at least 5 other bodies (our moon included). Pluto has two moons of it's own that are larger than pluto.
Awe...Pluto was always my favorite planet, lol. I could remember it the easiest!
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas
that's how we learned our planets. They even talked about that rhyme on the local news tonight. Except the reporter said Mars twice and forgot about Mercury....he was teased about that 
I think it's kind of dumb to demote a planet after all these years. Doesn't make much sense to me, but then again i'm not a astronomer.
I never knew a mnemonic device for remembering the planets!
My Very Educated Mother Just Saw Uncle Nicholas Pickleus
This is so crazy!!!!
From the Scotsman: Scotsman
"Pluto was downgraded as its orbit crosses with that of Neptune, meaning that it was classed as a dwarf planet as it had not cleared its orbit.
But critics claim that the IAU vote, which was passed by a majority, should be abandoned as only around 400 of the union's 10,000 members took part in the vote in Prague last week."
The article says that if the new definition of planets holds, Neptune could also be "downgraded", because its orbit crosses with Pluto's.
I don't pretend to understand the technicalities of this, but one of the reasons given was that there has been discussion of adding Charon (which is Pluto's moon and therefore orbits Pluto and not the Sun) and the asteroid Ceres, and some newly discovered "planet" to the list of Earth's planets. Seems to me a whole lot more discussion is called for, and the agreement of a lot more astronomers than just the 400 at the meeting, before they change what "everyone knows". But while it's interesting, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
Why couldn't it have been Uranus????? I've always hated the name!!!!
Me too, Imamommy!
My dh says it is pronounced yur-u-nus now anyway?
I don't how to phonetically do that, but the a is supposed to sound like the u in bus. Still don't like the name.
Funny thing though, I asked my 5 yo dd today how many planets we have? Her answer: 8, mommy, but you always thought there were 9.
HOW DID SHE GET SO SMART????
LOL there is a move within backyard astronomers to called the planet, your-uh-nus, instead of your anus..however it hasn't really caught on in the mainstream.
As far as pluto and neptune, it also has to do with size of the planet and then the shape of the orbit. Pluto has an oblong orbit, which is why it crosses neptune's orbit.
Just based on size there were several others considered for planets. However no other planets were added, although since we now kind of have a new classification as "dwarf planet" there were two new ones added...
I say it UR inus, because I really don't like saying it the other way. Ugh.
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