PARMAN'S PAGE: Space News | Sports & Movie Info | Journal

PLUTO NO LONGER CONSIDERED A PLANET... Well that certainly sucks. I was rooting for the twelve-planet scenario mentioned in this earlier entry to be approved. Now, there are only eight... Mercury through Neptune. Whatever... Astronomers blow. They blow big time. Thank God I got a 'D' in astronomy during my first year in college. Then again, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that.

UPDATE: One of the reasons why Pluto was demoted was because of the new rule stating that it must "clear out its neighborhood" (neighborhood being nearby asteroids, comets or other icy objects) to be a planet. Well, being that scores of asteroids reside near Earth (Near Earth Objects) and "Trojan" asteroids share Jupiter's orbit, then Earth and Jupiter SHOULDN'T be planets either.


On the plus side, having only eight official planets means that our exploration (or at least America's exploration... USA! USA! USA! Just kidding) of the solar system is complete. Sorry Alan Stern and the New Horizons project. I still wanted my name on that probe, though.


An illustration depicting NASA's New Horizons spacecraft passing by the dwarf planet Pluto.