I cannot explain this enough times: Why do people even have a fucking opinion on Pluto being reclassified? Why do you care? An astronomical body got moved from one technical classification to another. 20 fucking years ago. HOW. Literally HOW does this evoke a response in people?

So I'm sure Pluto won't mind having a name change to honor dogs...

Most things that orbit the sun are not major planets. Like 99.999% of them. The scientists were right. But of course you know better.

Which is odd, because news of good decisions travel at the speed of slight while bad ones travel FASTER than the speed of light!

I'd like to ignore the heroin-addicted eugenicist's decisions, but I take your point... in the way I want to take it. I can be my own version of Pluto.

I remember seeing the first close up of Pluto and falling in love with its dramatic colouring.

Everytime I hear the name Pluto I think of John Prine's song & that long legged cartoon doggy.

😁Earth isn't a planet either, it keeps having to clear its orbit.

Neptune’s moon Triton is bigger than Pluto.

I genuinely believe this was the start of American anti-intellectualism

It’s having quite the astrological moment right now, too. It happens to represent destruction and transformation. And here we are…

when was Pluto in that position before, and what happened then ? American Revolution ?

The American Revolution had similar placements. We need to brace ourselves. Things will get worse before they, hopefully, get better.

You dont believe in 2999 religions that people invented, I dont believe in just one more. You idiotic narcissistic fuck.

Fuck Pluto. Ever since we voted to kick it out of the planet group it's been slowly getting its revenge but turning our governments into a plutocracy.

Yup. PLANET.

I've been classified as a non-planet for 56 years ✔️ I continue to revolve around the sun ✔️ I'm not sure what more I can do, Michael. 🤔

I can't orbit the sun :(

Pluto will always be a planet.

Hey…it’s just a label and Pluto didn’t let a label define it!

The Earth won't alter its course if we all die out.

What bothers me is more linguistic than scientific: you don't just slap an adjective in front of a noun and then get all wound up when someone skips the adjective.

Science or 'Political Revisionism?'

If I orbit the sun I die. I'll stay on Earth and let it do the orbiting for me.

Remain unbothered. Pluto still A-okay in my Book. @neildegrassetyson.com

A rose by any other name…..

Actual astronomy lovers are excited to discuss the new classification and the reason it was created. They don't get butthurt over Pluto still, just saying.

science is essential

it's a dwarf planet with a moon which it orbits together around a barycenter outside either one

dwarf planet / moon of dwarf planet / pair of dwarfs things / first significant Kuiper belt objects The voyager data has been fascinating, especially the heliopause, adds perspective

Galileo was sentenced to house arrest in 1633 by the church for understanding heliocentrism. Be like Galileo reject religious thinking.

Galileo believed in God. He did not reject all religious thinking.

Hey if I lived in a time when not believing got you killed, then even I'd tell everyone I worshiped the birth Dionysus on Dec 25th & his resurrection by his father in Spring each year. Then do my thinking in private.

...and *not believing* didn't get you killed in the 17th c Papal States. The main thing you could get killed for by the Inquisition would be claiming you are a Catholic and teaching what was considered heresy at the time.

No, Galileo was very clearly pious, not just in his public pronouncements, but also his private communications, personal private notes, and directly in his actions. He even went to great lengths to persuade a reluctant abbess to take his two daughters into a convent.

Honestly while I appreciate the intention of the message, you know "be yourself regardless of others", I have a problem with the "ignore science and do what you want" part.

It's almost as if orbiting around the sun isn't the sole criteria for being designated as a planet.

Astonishing illogic.

What a trooper

Pluto:

Science - like religion - except real and useful 😐

This came out right after they decided it wasnt a planet but before the dwarf planet status. Almost made me spit out my coffee laughing.

🤣 YES.

To be fair, Pluto is smaller than our moon. There are plenty of other dwarf planets in our solar system, including one that is basically the size of Pluto (Eris) and a few others that still keep a round shape (Makemake and Ceres)

Nothing anyone on Earth can do makes any difference to what Pluto does anyway. Not so easy to ignore if someone’s perception of you can directly affect your existence.

Pluto is cold, dark and isolated. Why be like Pluto?

It's not isolated, it's in a perpetual orbital dance with its soulmate, the moon Charon. And Charon is so large that you could almost call them a binary system of dwarf planets.

The Plutonians? They got game.

Pluto has many moons. Pluto doesn’t care if anyone calls it a ‘planet’ or not. Pluto knows.

Will always be a planet to me.....

I like to imagine Jupiter was showing off about how great and mighty he was, when Pluto went, "Shut up, Jupes! You aren't even a brown dwarf." "You're a dwarf, Pluto. I'm telling Science!" And here we are

That's because Pluto is indeed a planet, not a star or comet or asteroid, but a planet !!!

there are already 5 recognized *dwarf planets* like Pluto, as well as possibly a hundred more being investigated. Are we really OK with having over a hundred more "planets" in our Solar System that can't be bothered to clear their orbits of clutter? They are more like unruly pre-teens.

I didn't know there was a limit on how many objects can be given a particular label.

no limits, but you know how scientists love to classify things

Eris has more mass than Pluto. That’s why. It triggered a recognition of the need to set a classification for dwarf planets. It’s not a snub really.

They should have given them a different label entirely. Slapping an adjective on to a noun doesn't make sense if you want people to stop referring to it by just the noun.

Does Pluto have consciousness about own existence ?

Still not a planet. All based on scientific facts like everything else the scientific community does. Facts and data is all you need.

You'd think that, but then you reach your mid-40s and realize the limitations you're putting on yourself by excluding love and spirituality.

Pluto, being an inaminate object, doesn't give a shit about your emotional tantrums about planetary classification.

Being an inanimate object, Pluto is incapable of not giving shits about anything.

Pluto doesn’t gives a shit 🧐

"be like Pluto" : cold, dark, lifeless and unreachable ?

Hasn't completed an orbit since humans noticed it Has completed a lot of orbits since it was formed Pluto abides

If you ignored scientists you wouldn't know that Pluto existed.

We know where men and women come from. Where did dogs come from?

Looking at you Neil. 👀🤨

😱

It’s okay, Pluto. I’m not a planet either!

Pluto funded the MAGA movement as a revenge on scientists. Don’t be fooled by its cool demeanour - it’s pissed.

All this *gestures to everything* came about after we downgraded Pluto…

are the #epsteinfiles overthere?

Lauren Faust goes in to pitch her “Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls” IP to Hasbro the same week Pluto loses its planet status. Her Pluto character was heavily featured in the pitch. Hasbro rejects her pitch but offers her to develop My Little Pony instead. That’s why we had Bronies.

“Be like Pluto and… ignore scientists”? Sorry pal, I’m getting vaccinated

I’m thinking maga hates science because it asks to many questions about their belief system.

I think the message was supposed to be"ignore the haters"

Hard to know for sure, but could also be "ignore scientists that don't agree with scripture". I've seen it unfortunately often.

Scripture thought that the moon was just a big nightlight.

You sure it's not a ball of luminous cheeeese?

yes ignore the tiny # of scientists who were there and did this. Only 424 astronomers out of about 10,000 participated in the 2006 vote; less than 5%. Alan Stern (leading scientist on the New Horizons mission to Pluto) said it was a farce & that the astronomy community was expected to overturn it.

Seems like Mr. Stern was wrong.

I remembered being amazed when it was discovered Pluto had a thin atmosphere, I'm now even more amazed because I've just learned that it still has a hot core and volcanic activity which is reason for the atmosphere.

Can we confirm this? Has anyone done a wellness check on Pluto?

It didn't "lose its planet status" stop talking nonsense. It is a "dwarf planet".

I side with the scientists. Pluto is too small to be a planet, it's smaller than our Moon, and I don't hear anyone getting on their high horse about calling the Moon a planet. Pluto doesn't even orbit properly, sometimes it's closer to the Sun than Neptune.

Planetary scientist here: it's a planet, the IAU's definition is so silly it accidentally excludes Venus and Mercury as plants

Hey I'm just spouting from a position of ignorance. I have a very limited knowledge of the method of determining definitions. But, in all honesty, I quite liked Pluto being the last planet in the solar system, like a wobbly orbited full stop before the Kuyper Belt starts.

"Hey I'm just spouting from a position of ignorance." Hey, you and the IAU both! (I kid, I kid)

I'm in control of my Dunning Kruger syndrome. So, weighing things up, my worthless opinion is that Pluto should be called a Planet, or even a Dwarf Planet if it makes people happy. It's round, it goes round the sun, it has 5 moons, and it's named after Mickey Mouse's dog. 😉

I think any non-star should be considered a planet that's differentiated with a barycentre outside of any other planets. If the barycentre is between two differentiated bodies, it's a binary system. Addressing roundness creates some problems with arbitrariness but differentiation is a proxy.

Yeah, why not. I mean, if a planet gets thrown, or knocked out of its planetary system, does it stop being a planet? Comets are funky planets.

Rogue planets are a thing, which is one reason to use the barycentre rather than defining them relative to a specific star. The geophysical definition is based on the properties of the planet itself, and is mostly independent of the wider system. The IAU definition is ✨ v i b e s ✨

However, the universe is so massive and unknown, that I'm sure there are things out there that aren't stars but aren't planets either. Defining things by how-you-feel-about-it is very human.

Pluto. The one time you can righteously say: Fuck what you scientists think!

Nice picture. Who took it ? Theologians ? No, scientists . Nice planet . Who discovered it ? Theologians ? No, scientists . Theologians in fact denied for centuries that planets - & the earth - could orbit the sun. Just like they'd insisted that earth was flat . Be like Pluto . Ignore theologians .

"Who discovered it ? Theologians ? No, scientists ." Sir I believe you're missing, like, several thousand years of the history of astronomy.

Boy if orbiting the sun is the only requirement, then we have a lot of new planets suddenly.

"A lot" is an understatement. We would have millions of new planets all of a sudden.

We're gonna need a few baby name books for the asteroid belt.

What's your message here? Ignore the haters or ignore the scientists? Because one is a good message and one is a bad message.

What it is actually bothered by though are the big-ass asteroids and dwarfs in the kuiper belt

Pluto: "I'ma be ME!"

Damn rock on Pluto

The honey badger of planetoids.

Not really the point. Guess our moon is now a planet by that lame definition. 😆😆

Pluto just orbiting like:

To be clear, it was redefined as a dwarf planet. Counting them all, we have five of them. Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makmake. Learn their names. I teach them to my children.

Makemake. (Typo)

But it does harbour a deep-seated grudge.

Pluto is a planet! So say we all 🙏🏻

Just a reminder that the Moon is about half again as big as Pluto.

Yes ... be an America ... just like Pluto ... .... America lost its democracy and is still orbiting the planet claiming it has one! So yeah Pluto can ignore the scientists .... just like Trump is ignoring the voters

It's an escaped Moon of Neptune when it was nocked out of Orbit by a large Asteroid and broke off a chunk also known as, Charon. Planetoid, Minor planet. Mini Planet, etc.

truth

When you compare planet Pluto to a Disney dog, it's understandable that people get angry :-)