(11-11-2021, 02:26 PM)Minstrel Wrote: Love your argument. Cogent & convincing.
And succinct! Simple, and to the point!
I'm an old man, and for all my life. Pluto has been a planet. Once upon a time, "planet" was defined as any celestial body with sufficient mass to pull itself round through gravitational forces, but which was not self-luminous, like a star. While Pluto fills that bill, they also found that some asteroids also fit that description, most notably Ceres. That caused them to rethink the status of Pluto.
So then they came up with a new class, "Minor Planets". I could live with that - it was still a "planet". THEN they started finding other balls of ice in the Kuiper Belt, and went to rethinking the status of Pluto again, finally demoting it officially to "Kuiper Belt Object", which in layman's terms means "not a planet". That was just a bridge too far. Pluto had always been a planet, and Pluto had not changed a bit, so clearly Pluto must still be a planet, despite whatever label they want to hang on it.
I think currently the classification of Pluto is ""Dwarf Planet". I'm good with that, since it's still a "planet", same as it's big brothers. and an upgrade from "just a random ball of ice in the Kuiper belt".
So, yeah, folks who deny it's planet status are just wrong.
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Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’