[meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 14:33:18 -0500
Message-ID: <CAKBPJW-S-5eP5AUp+0yWDy+CF_9QrS5ZQVNvt4xBPeC6rGyokQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Sterling, Phil, and List,

It's all a matter of semantics. Every rock circling the sun from
fist-sized to Death Star is a fellow traveler in the cosmos, all
moving in unison towards the center of mass of our Local Group of
galaxies, which is in turn moving on it's own interstellar course to
infinity.

In my book, Pluto will always be a "planet" despite the change in
nomenclature. From the time I was a child I was taught that Pluto is
a planet. In science class, we learned the names of all the planets,
and Pluto was included. There was even a little saying that helped us
learn their names, but I don't recall what it is now. It was similar
to the "Roy G. Biv" thing to learn the colors of the spectrum.

In my childhood, Pluto was the most distant place I could imagine.
Everything beyond Pluto just seemed like another universe - and it is!
 I don't care what some Non-Com says, Pluto is the distant boundary
world and last solar system outpost before the distant reaches of
interstellar space - not taking into consideration the semantics of
Kuiper Belt objects and Oort Cloud objects.

Best regards and clear dark skies,

MikeG

-- 
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On 2/2/12, Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Gary, List,
>
> If it's not a planet, why do we call it a dwarf PLANET?
> Do you refer to everyone you know who is less than
> five-foot-ten as a "dwarf person"? So-and-so isn't a person;
> he's a dwarf person? Adjectives do not negate the thing
> they describe.
>
> So, we have dwarf planets, gas planets, rocky planets,
> etc, but they're ALL planets. I take the IAU at its literal
> word, not its irrational intent. As far as I am concerned,
> Pluto is a planet, Ceres is a planet, Eris is a planet,
> Makemake and Haumea are... You get the idea. Since
> Vesta (now that we've seen it) probably formed "round"
> and has been chipped away at ever since, it's a planet
> (and likely Pallas and Hygeia too).
>
> There are at least 23 planets, (despite the eccentric
> opinions of an Uruguayan cosmologist to whom I would
> suggest in reply that Brazil is a nation and Uruguay is
> only a dwarf nation).
>
> IAU: "A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient
> mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so
> that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round)
> shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither
> a star nor a satellite of a planet." I would add the phrase
> "unless distorted by dynamic equilibrium," a condition
> that unless added would eliminate Jupiter and Saturn
> and even the Earth as planets!
>
> Planet quarrels. Good times...
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gary K. Foote" <gary at webbers.com>
> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 6:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Petition For a Pluto New Horizons Stamp
>
>
>> But Pluto isn't a planet anymore.  Its a dwarf planet.  Maybe they'll
>> make
>> really tiny stamps ;)
>>
>> Gary
>>
>> On Wed, February 1, 2012 11:46 pm, Sterling K. Webb wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Of course, in March 2015, if all goes well, the
>>> New Horizons mission will reach Pluto. Don't
>>> you think it will deserve a stamp of its own to
>>> correct that 1991 stamp when it gets there,
>>> in 2015?
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Received on Thu 02 Feb 2012 02:33:18 PM PST