Dammit, I grew up with the planet Pluto. It was part of the model I made of the solar system as a child (and of the one that I gave my nephew for his birthday!) It's mentioned in the Animaniacs' song about the planets (WAKKO: "You forgot yer anus"), for God's sake! Yakko specifically mentions it: "And cold and tiny Pluto/ It's the furthest one of all."
Sure, sure; we all knew that Pluto was different from the other planets. But that didn't matter. There it was, a tiny erratic wanderer, valiantly riding aroud the sun way out there on the edge of the solar system. Nobody told us just how very crowded that solar system is, though even during my childhood we knew that there was discussion of adding another planet or three.
From CNN.com:
[quote begins from article "Pluto Gets the Boot"]
After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is -- and isn't -- a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one....
The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.
For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."
Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.
Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun -- "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites....
Just a few days ago, I celebrated the addition of three new planets to the solar system. Now they're not only NOT adding those three, they are taking away Pluto! What gives them the right to do that? Bastards. And get this:
[quote begins from CNN.com article "Pluto Gets the Boot]
Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs....
[Michael] Brown [of the California Institute of Technology] was pleased by the decision. He had argued that Pluto and similar bodies didn't deserve planet status, saying that would "take the magic out of the solar system."
"UB313 is the largest dwarf planet. That's kind of cool," he said.
[quote from article ends]
WHAT? What does he mean it would "take the magic out of the solar system"? Consistency, Dr. Brown, is the hobgoblin of little minds. The solar system---with Pluto---had plenty of magic, just as it was. Plenty of magic. Who are the International Union of Astronomers to interfere, or to decide what is---or is not---"magical"? Man, two weeks of arguing back and forth over this?
If they didn't want to add three new planets, then fine. FINE. (Though they shouldn't have teased us with the prospect).
But now they are not only NOT giving us three more, they are taking away Pluto. YOU BASTARDS.
Do not despair, tiny Pluto! You will always be a planet to me!
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