NASA SCIENTISTS WANT TO MAKE PLUTO A PLANET AGAIN

A group of NASA scientists has proposed a new definition of what constitutes as a planet, possibly opening the door for Pluto to return to its former status. First discovered and classified as a planet in 1930, Pluto had its planetary status removed in 2006 because there appeared to be other objects like Pluto beyond the eighth planet, Neptune. Pluto was thus demoted to a “dwarf planet.” Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto believes this was wrong, and now he and his colleagues are proposing a new definition of a planet, that is more in line with “scientific classification and peoples’ intuition.” They suggest planets should be defined as “round objects in space that are smaller than stars.” While this isn’t the first time that researchers have spoken out against Pluto’s demotion, the proposal forces the International Astronomical Union to make a decision.
* I suspect this is just a ploy by the science textbook publishers to make more money from revised editions.
* Has anyone asked Pluto if it identifies as a planet?
* Make it a planet anyway? It’s the solar system version of a participation trophy.
* “Round objects in space that are smaller than stars”? So black holes are planets now? Morons.
* Has Neil deGrasse Tyson weighed in? Bill Nye the Science Guy? Larry the Cable Guy?
* I like how they include people’s intuition in this. That’ll help with all those pesky scientific facts.
* I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a feeling in my gut that Pluto was a planet. If that matters any.
* Other objects further out than Pluto? You’re not going Planet X on us, are you?
* Hey, we just found another continent on this planet. It’s going to take us a while to sort out the solar system.