Well, they get their name from the fact that they appear to "orbit" a star. To orbit a star was the only requirement for their classification. The same rationale should be applied to the bodies orbiting any star.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Don't hold your breath waiting for that change. Planetary nebulas got their name because in the old days of smaller telescopes, and no film, they got mistaken for planets.

But, since the term is not experiencing any threat of ambiguous usage, there's no need to change it, and it probably won't change.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Yeah, but their nomenclature (mistaken as it may be) is a testimony of a simpler approach to the facts: orbits a star --> is a planet(*).

(*) Herschel had the Greek tradition in mind when he first classified those objects.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Pluto is not dead nor removed. It has not left anywhere. Any property it has has not changed. It is as intriguing object as it has always been--and in less than a decade we will know a lot more about it.

Only thing that has changed is that it is now a "dwarf planet" instead of "planet". Big deal. No goodbyes, please.

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Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
-- Richard Feynman

There is an interesting bit about this whole thing on spaceweather.com/ today.

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If you browse old books for example at the Google Book Search, you can find texts about these "planets".

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Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
-- Richard Feynman

White Dwarf ...

It'll Even Happen to The Sun ...

ONE of These Days!

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

Most are not white. [Let's let them get through the outcrys from planethoodness first.]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board!

Yeah, just read that on MSNBC.com - so, how long before textbooks start removing information on Pluto, do you think?

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Sleep? Isn't that that totally inadaquate substitute for caffeine I've heard so much about?

Quantumfoamy.com, my astronomy/astrophotography blog.

Eh ...

The GOOD Ones, Won't Remove it at All ...

Instead, they'll Add a Chapter Specifically on Dwarf Planets!

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

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No, I think not. It'll always be 'Pluto' even if it's referred to as blah blah blah 'also known as Pluto'

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You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

Of course. Pluto, now officially (134340) Pluto, was numbered in the sake of consistency.

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Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
-- Richard Feynman

That has to be one of your weakest attempts to incite a forum argument so far.

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"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph" -- Conan

Poor Ceres lost its name too (a century and a half ago). It is now called "1". Nobody refers to this former planet as "Ceres" anymore. How sad. Its heart is still broken after all this time, and it has started spiralling into an unstable orbit because of the shame of the lost status.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Incite an argument ?

Moi ?

One mearly speculates the repucissions of the strange ruling in Prague by the IAU

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LOL! Sky Publishing is selling The New Old Solar System, 4th Edition with a slightly revised price! Guess it is slightly outdated now (but then what Solar Sysem book isn't!?)...

I wonder what Ken Croswell, the author of the first book with ten planets thought about Pluto's demotion...

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Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
-- Richard Feynman

Rubbish! Although I didn't expect them to assign an MP number to Pluto, the idea is neither new nor changing things, except it is more consistent than an unnumbered but named TNO. The numbering won't have any impact on the name, in normal minor planet catalogue handling it is actually one of a few prerequisites for assigning a name and all the named minor planets have one. Since unnumbered objects remain unnamed, there just shouldn't be a named object without a number. As an alternative they could have dropped the name and issued a provisional designation. While some formal applications may prefer the number, humans prefer the name, and when a number is intended for humans reading it is usually used in conjunction with the name if there is one. Who calls Eros, Pholus, Hidalgo, Varuna, Orcus, Eris or Sedna by number?

Nobody. Besides, Pluto is officially (134340) Pluto, not "minor planet 134340".

As is mentioned in the editorial notice, Pluto, Eris, and the two dwarf planet candidates received minor planet numbers mostly because of practical reasons. It does not preclude a different numbering scheme for dwarf planets. Since the numbers are so impractically complex, I don't see they will be used except by the MPC and probably in scientific papers.

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Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
-- Richard Feynman

Or maybe one merely likes to inflame the board with obvious absurdities and then claim innocent ignorance when regulars rush to counter. Most active forums have at least one character that gets his jollies doing that.

Your claim that Pluto has been renamed is so inane, even for you, that you give yourself away.

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"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph" -- Conan

I may be wrong but I have the impression that Sticks wasn´t intending to engage in a disruptive behaviour.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Of course, when it spirals in far enough, it'll come to a clear orbit and will regain planet status.

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

I respectfully disagree. He's been here long enough to add almost 2000 posts and yet, after our long discussions about Pluto, he inexplicably interprets Phil's mention about Pluto's classification as "Pluto has now lost its name, it is now 134340"

I give credit for Sticks being more intelligent than others do, I guess. There are definitely people who get a chuckle out of stirring up an argument and then watching the fray.

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"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph" -- Conan

Planet Vulcan at last!

-- Kevin Heider

Stirring it up?!...Name names

Sticks, And I Hope you Don't Mind me Revealing This, Also has Trouble Empathizing Wiith Others ...

We Cut him Some Slack Because of it ...

I Used to Know a Guy wiith The Saame Problem, it Can Maake it Real Nasty to Deal wiith Other People!

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

Sorry if I caused any offence, but I was not the only one in the Blog comment on the assignment of a number to Pluto, (see this entry). It just came across as being harsh. Many school children have been upset by their favourite celestial entity being kicked out of the planet club and to give it a number so we officially have to refer to it by a number and then a name seemed like a further indignity. It just seemed like first, the few who were able to hang around on the last day of the conference in Prague removed it's planet status, and now it was to be air-brushed out. We refer to some stars now only by catalogue number so applying that to objects in the solar system seemed a logical step.

So what was wrong with having a number of planets going into double figures if that is how things are?

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Eh, People Liike Keeping Thiings Simple ...

Personally, I Thiink there'll Soon Be Enough Dwarf Planets for them to Have their Own Mnemonic, Which People Will then Learn ..

I KNOW I Will!

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

Not this southparkesque (thanks, loglo) again!
Not in the least. Doesn't it hurt to make such a stretch?
That's why the world was to refer to Sirius as "BD-16 1591" after Argelander made his nasty airbrush survey. Did it ever occur to you that proper names are given for the purpose of being used? Of course, it did. You are neither stupid nor inexperienced enough in the field to believe in your point, I'm sure. And it doesn't have enough meat to yield a case for an avocado diaboli.

I hate to say this, but it did not lose status as a Planet. It was reclassified as a Dwarf Planet. There is a big difference.

Personaly I find the new IAU classifications lacking, they had a chance to nail down a good classification sceme for cataloging worlds, and didn't take it.

I use the following classification scheme on my Worlds of other Suns site:

(B)Belt Planets(worlds) are planets like Pluto, Sedna, Ceres and Eris (Formerly UB313 aka Xena) which are planets originating in a belt or cloud of similar objects. Pluto, UB313, and Sedna all appear to originate from the Kuiper Belt, leading to this logical classification. Any size planet may be placed in this class if it's part of a belt like system. This Catagory matches the "Dwarf Planet" definition of IAU, but allows for any size of planet to be part of a belt system.

Dwarf (D) Dwarf Planets(worlds) are smaller body's, less then half the earths mass, that have enough gravity that they compact themselves into a roundish shape (or Hydrostatic Equalibrium).

Stock (S) Stock Planets(worlds) are planets that are Earth like (Stock meaning normal) with masses from 1/2 the Earth up to 5 Earth masses.

Huge (H) Huge Planets are worlds that are from 5 times the mass of Earth up to 8 earth masses (Neptune sized) that are not Gas Giants (or mostly there mass is from rock and not gases)

Giant (G) Giant Planets are Neptune sized, 8 masses earth and up, but not including Gas Giants that are massive enough to have some fusion in thier cores (Brown Dwarfs), which is though to be about 13 Jupiter Masses.

Double or Multiple(M) Double (or Multiple) Planet class is used to describe a two or more planet system, where at least two objects orbit each other around thier Bary Center and both are at least dwarf planets. The Pluto-Charon system would be a good example of this Class. Any size planet may be placed in this class if it's part of a multiple system.

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