When is a Planet not a Planet...

A planet that we all learned was a planet is no longer a planet...thanks to a bunch of retroactive scientific thinking at a conference in Prague.

Pluto is now considered a "dwarf planet."



Wonder how many of them there will be before they are through counting?

This is disrespectful to Percival Lowell, who first suggested that Pluto was out there, and to Clyde Tombaugh, who found it in the night sky in 1930.

The question of whether Pluto was a planet or not has gone on for awhile. Its orbit crossing Neptune's was probably the deal breaker.



Along with the fact that Pluto's moon, Charon, is very close in size and distance to its brother/sister/whatever planet...sorry, dwarf planet. They orbit each other within 19,000 miles of one another. Pluto has a diameter of 3,200 kilometers. Charon has a diameter of 1,400 kilometers.

Now imagine if the Moon had the same percentile relationship with the Earth...the Moon, as it is, is 3,476 kilometers around...now, then...let's see...carry the one...that would make our moon 5,485 kilometers.

Imagine a Moon in the night sky that would almost be twice the size of the one we've got...with the tides, I bet Earth wouldn't have supported life.

And the fact that if Pluto is a planet, then, an argument could be made for the Moon to be called a planet, as well.