this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025
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The problem with recognizing Pluto is that Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, Ceres, Orcus, and perhaps also Salacia also should probably be included, and that makes for a nightmare of a mnemonic. As we all know, classification is decided on mnemonic plausibility.
My Very Educated Mother's Cousin Just Served Us Nine Outstanding Pizzas - (Somehow,) Her Quiche Might Get Officially Surpassed
Now, you only have to remember that Makemake and Orcus are in the Kuiper belt (past Neptune's orbit), and that maybe that Salacia is optional, and you can puzzle out the two repeated letters.
I spent too long on this.
...where's eris?..
"Educated"
We eliminated Earth by accident.
Of course we didn't. The International Earth-Destruction Advisory Board would have reported that...
Shit.
Not too much, what's eris you?
Yeah, there never was an option to keep 9 planets. It was either 8, all of which are already familiar, or many many more. And they wouldn't all be added neatly at the end either. Removing Pluto was the sensible choice.
Possibly over 100.
What's the problem with having many many planets in our solar system? You don't have to remember them all.
We also have many many stars in our galaxy. We don't have to know their names for them to still be stars.
You don't ever see people calling for Ceres to be proclaimed planet, all they care about is Pluto.
@lemmyartistforhire@lemmy.world is it better for space/societal advancement if we have a nice neat small finite number of planets in our solar system, if even politicians can remember how many there are so Earth feels a little less like a statistic?
Kinda stretching here, IDK
I think Pluto having been widely regarded as a planet before and having a visible heart shape on it's surface is an easier sell. I say they are both planets.
You also can't find a good problem with this, can you?
Cool. Can you name all planets in the Solar System, in the correct order?
I can't.
Yeah. To answer your question, I see that as the problem. If you don't, well, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.
Do you know why you apply this logic to planets, but not stars?
I also can't name all the planets outside of our solar system, but that seems to be less of an issue for you.
It’s only a problem when you reach a certain level of astronomical knowledge. 99% of us don’t and won’t give a shit and think the people who decided Pluto’s no longer a planet are simply assholes.
All adults know what a “grandfather clause” is and are capable of applying that to Pluto.
Pluto is and will always be Hot Shit.
Actually, it's very cold on Pluto. Which makes Pluto cooler than Fonzie
Technically, you don't know Fonzie's temperature. And before you go and say "human temperature," the Fonz is a fictional character, so all bets are off.
To be fair, they could actually be assholes.
Yes. Fuck Mike Brown. I don't know why many people still let him dictate what to think of as a planet. The concept of "planet" is entirely man-made and doesn't follow any god given or universal criteria. While some astronomers argue that our moon is a planet too, the current criteria would even de-classify earth as a planet, should it get knocked out of our solar system.
I see Pluto as a Planet, and have yet to see a good argument against it.
Pluto and the others are planets even without including them all in the mnemonic. The mnemonic is for the first 9 planets, just like you only remember the first few digits of pi.
Pluto was not the first 9th planet. Then again we were up to 13(?) at one point.
Because Pluto is the 9th planet?
How are you counting?
They actually know their history, which you clearly don't
The moons of Jupiter and Saturn were called satellite planets from their discovery until sometime in the 20th century.
The first several asteroids were called planets, until enough were discovered that the term 'asteroid' was invented and they were renamed.
The first Kuiper belt objects were called planets, until enough were discovered that it turns out Pluto is mostly just a particularly reflective example.
Ceres is between Mars and Jupiter.
If one uses diameter as the cutoff, then Pluto is larger than all of those.
Ok so we're adding new arbitrary qualifications to hold onto the simplified image of the solar system that we learned growing up.
Nah, the cutoff is "is it mostly spherical due to its own gravity?" and "has it cleared its orbit from other bodies?"
Pluto is massive enough to be spherical but did not clear its orbit from other bodies. Now its the head of its own family, the dwarf-planets.
Indeed, but Eris is only marginally smaller and a fair bit more massive, and the latter is generally more important in categorization.
Yet Mercury is in the same category as Jupiter...as though they are similar in any way. "Planet" is one of the few times science has decided to change something for the sole purpose of keeping the Earth important in its classification. I suppose we could not have 15 or 20 or 40 planets because that would be confusing...yet we have almost 1000 moons. It is ONLY because it is the Earth's classification...no other reason. It doesn't make anything easier or less confusing.
They could have easily made mercury, pluto, and a dozen others dwarf planets, Venus Earth and Mars terrestrial planets and the others gas planets... but that would demote Earth.
Weird left over geocentrism remaining in science like it's the 1300s.
Er... Are you saying that scientists won't classify Earth as a Terrestrial Planet? Because they do.. The next 4 are Jovian Planets, while others including Asteroids are called Minor Planets.
If you check the wiki article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_planet you'll notice some scientists consider Earth's Moon, plus Io and Europa terrestrial planets as well.
I don't see how it would be a demotion. Pluto is a planet, but not one of the terrestrial or Jovian Planets, but instead a minor planet, a dwarf planet. The people who insist on the 9 or 8 planets is less scientists and more about what we teach as the main planets in the solar system to like kids and such.
I'm a bit confused on your idea of scientists. They love being more specific about definitions, as do many other technical fields. Ask medicals scientists about Cancer or heart disease and they'll explain they're very broad terms that have many subcategories and differences, which is why there isn't 1 easy cure. Similarly, "the common cold" is just a description of symptoms carried out by a number of different viruses from different families that our bodies just tend to react to in the same way, which is why a cure for the common cold is a ridiculous thing to hope for.
These definitions aren't usually for scientists, but instead generalizations the public settle on because remembering everything would be too much for people who aren't interested or involved.
I understand and completely agree wiyh your point except there are no sub categories of planets. This move was specially made (by a super minority of voters at a last minute end of the conference vote) to keep Earth's classification as a planet more important. First of all, and frankly insane, Pluto is not under the classifocation of a planet. It is a dwarf planet that, contrary to logic, is NOT a sub category of a planet. If you look at the Euler diagram on the wiki page for dwarf planets you can see they specifically made sure planets were a stand alone category. Sub categories like you mentioned make perfect sense but would slightly diminish Earth's "special" classification.
I would love for all of the bodies to be under a large hierarchical classification as you suggested but oddly they are not. It's disjointed and I think done in a way specifically to spite others in a bit of a power fit.
Ahh, more a complaint about the International Astronomical Union (IAU), not science in general. No objections to that complaint. Your comment just kinda read as if it were all science and/or astrophysicists.