>you know i just aint buying the whole pluto thang... i think it should still be counted as planet for atleast another 3 or 4 generations under a grandfather clause that states the new rules dont count when mankind is stupid enough to deam otherwise for > 50 years. Atleast for us in the US - hell, it's been how long now that we've known we had a faulty measurement system and we still have yet to convert to metric????
>
>and then some rocket scientist comes along and says pluto isnt a planet overnite and we just roll over and accept it?! now how does that work??? <g> am i the only one who heard that newscast and says to myself -> self, what is wrong with this picture???


I think the media is - always - going for the wrong image. They always want to present the human side, sometimes without regards to accuracy and veracity. Many times they don't even make sense!

Pluto's status has been in trouble ever since its discovery as it does not really fit with the rest. Finally they decided to make the change. The point is, who cares? All they are doing is wasting time about semantics, what to call it, instead of doing actual science and spending the time studying it.

I heard on the media this week that 'they had kicked out' Pluto from the solar system and that if you have a hanging model on your kid's ceiling you'd have to take Pluto out! (both of these "points" where made in NPR). What nonsense!

Pluto has not gone anywhere! Has not changed or "left" the solar system! It is still the same small ball of ice it always was! It is tiny (smaller in diameter than the width of the USA), with a different orbit than the planets, with a companion (Charon) where their orbital center of gravity falls outside the pair. Definitely not a planet, just an interesting pair of Kuiper Belt objects to study. What has changed?