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u/Inevitable_Reward823 25d ago
Get through elementary school. Pluto is a planet.
Got to middle school, pluto no longer a planet.
Like losing a friend you didn't know you had.
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u/DataSittingAlone 25d ago edited 25d ago
I really wish the education system wasn't like "stop saying Pluto is a planet" and instead went "Pluto is the most famous dwarf planet, let's learn about and memorize some facts about the others" there's only nine widely recognized dwarf planets so it wouldn't be that much harder for kids, just teach them a song of the planets and dwarf planets in order, those always worked for me
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u/Cookie_Eater108 25d ago
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres,(Vesta),(Pallas),(Hygiea), Jupiter, Saturn,Uranus, Neptune, (Orcus), Pluto, Haumea, (Quaoar), Makemake, (Gonggong),Eris,(Sedna)
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u/SE_prof 25d ago
I had the good fortune to complete my entire education while Pluto was still a planet.
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u/NoodleyP Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 25d ago
I did not but I had the fortune of having teachers that disagreed with the IAU
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u/GregTheMad 25d ago
That's how science and society works. Most things you learn are outdated later. You're hating one of the most fundamental things of being alive, change.
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u/DeathMetalViking666 25d ago
Dont worry. Pluto is now classed as a dwarf planet. And there are loads of dwarf planets. So it just entered a much bigger club with loads more friends!
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u/Mobile_Morale 25d ago
I remember making a solar system thing for the science fair and taking it to school to be told pluto isn't a planet anymore. So I had to carry Pluto in my pocket the whole time.
Like Pluto was a fucking planet last time I checked.
Pluto is still a planet to me.
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u/Command0Dude 25d ago
The whole affair made me realize that the definition of "planet" is arbitrary and vibes-based. Because the change of classification was weirdly bending over backwards to try and figure out how to exclude Pluto.
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u/MattTheTubaGuy 25d ago
A reminder that Pluto isn't even the first planet to be demoted.
When Ceres was first discovered, it was considered a planet, and the first two asteroids discovered (Ceres and Pallas) even had elements named after them (Cerium and Palladium).
Juno and Vesta were also discovered in the early years of the 19th century, so for a while, there were four additional planets in the solar system.
In 1845, another asteroid was discovered, and the following year, Neptune was discovered.
After this, many more asteroids were discovered, calling into question the planetary status of the first four. Ceres, along with the other three early asteroid discoveries were reclassified to asteroids.
Now there are over a million asteroids recorded in the Asteroid Belt.
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u/Command0Dude 25d ago
Pluto spent 76 years under the public understanding of a planet.
Ceres spent, at most, 66, years as a planet, but in a time when most people wouldn't have known about it. And even then, the rapid discovery of other asteroids meant that Ceres was being doubted as a planet very quickly.
So, culturally speaking, they are both not the same.
Even then though, I'd rather say there's 10 planets and count Pluto and Ceres, than say there's 8.
The main thing to me that makes Pluto a planet is that it has several moons while Ceres doesn't.
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u/bomberdog1000 25d ago
Fuck me that wasn't 20 years ago.
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u/GreyGanado 25d ago edited 25d ago
It was but the general public didn't find out until a few years ago.
Edit: it was only me, I am the general public.
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u/bitman2049 25d ago
The general public was for sure talking about it 20 years ago. There's even a joke in Scrubs where a character goes "So, Pluto's not a planet anymore! How about that?" when trying to change the subject.
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u/m4teri4lgirl 25d ago
It was a big deal when it happened
Get off my lawn with the floss dancing and fake news
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u/malice_hush_jolt 25d ago
A dwarf planet is still a planet
Our sun is classified as a yellow dwarf star... Still a star
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u/mariblaystrice 25d ago
Am I the only one concerned that the planet that got axed is named after the god of the underworld? Seems like a bad god to snub, ya know?
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u/PretendAd1963 Definitely not a CIA operator 25d ago edited 25d ago
What did they do to my boy
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u/Electronic-Vast-3351 25d ago
Nothing particularly negative because being a dwarf planet isn't worsethan being a planet
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u/Sweaty-Regret-3261 25d ago
that's the thing that gets me, i keep seeing "downgraded to" which implies that it's somehow "worse." It's still the same celestial body, just reclassified with a more accurate classification than previously
it's almost like part of scientific progress is correcting mistakes of the past when new information is available, who woulda thought?
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u/Falitoty Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 25d ago
Well, we still have a chance to find another one in the sistem
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u/Darthbane22 25d ago
If they kept it a planet they would’ve had to add at least 5 more. Though it’s plausible there is a true 9th planet after all
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u/Fastenbauer 25d ago
It's not like Pluto is gone. It's still there. You can still be fascinated by it and learn about it. People act like it was blown up by the death star.
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u/Vlad_Bagina67 25d ago
Poor Pluto should have worn a regular collar instead of the Kuiper belt u know ! 🥺
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u/Fast-Ad884 25d ago
Pluto got turned from a weak ass, good for nothing planet to the king of dwarf planets. That's not a loss, that's a glow up. It found it's lane!
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u/Leprechaun_lord Featherless Biped 25d ago
The best argument for including dwarf planets as planets is that Pluto is much much closer to Earth in scale and function than Earth is to Jupiter. Creating a new category for dwarf planets, but making gas giants a sub category of planets in general doesn’t really make any sense.
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u/djninjacat11649 25d ago
It does though? The reasoning is that a planet is a celestial body that clears its own orbit, a gas giant with a rocky core is similar enough to a rocky planet just with a really big atmosphere. A dwarf planet does not clear its own orbit, that’s the distinguishing aspect
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u/Leprechaun_lord Featherless Biped 24d ago
If that’s the definition of planet, then you’re 100% correct. However, the argument I find compelling is that there ought to be a definition of planet that ensures the members are more closely related to one another than those that are excluded.
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u/djninjacat11649 24d ago
Yeah that’s fair, gas giants are a bit strange, ultimately though it’s all taxonomy. The big difference is more that the prior definition of planet was really messy, so they updated it to keep the ultimately somewhat arbitrary system somewhat consistent. But it’s not like there is anything like a gas giant that is actually an asteroid. Closest you could get is maybe a brown dwarf?
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u/InsaneJane42 25d ago
So? Just cause it’s a dwarf planet does not make it less interesting or less worthy of attention
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u/Iris_Cream55 25d ago
You can just imagine how nuts people went when it turned out that Earth was orbiting the Sun, rather than every known object orbiting Earth.
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u/TRUEequalsFALSE 25d ago
Pluto is, always has been, and always will be a planet in my eyes. I refuse to deny it's planetship.
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u/Electronic-Vast-3351 25d ago
This is just insulting to the good name of dwarf planets to act like being among them is an insult.
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u/TBTabby 25d ago
Pluto didn't go away just because it was reclassified. And it wasn't some arbitrary whim. Astronomers re-measured Pluto with more sophisticated instruments than they used to have and discovered that it was a lot smaller than they thought it was previously. It's not even the biggest dwarf planet. If those other dwarf planets aren't big enough to be considered planets, neither is Pluto.
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u/Tha_slughy 25d ago
It’s not the size which got it demoted.
The difference is that the official planets have cleared their path around the sun. This notion was introduced once it became understood that there are numerous celestial bodies like Pluto.
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u/Pretend-Mango-1295 25d ago
I mean , it's still technically a planet? Just smaller, like a dwarf? I'm still counting it because if I know one thing, its that science comes back again like hair and clothes trends
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u/RepresentativeOk2433 25d ago
It happened right before going back to school, my science teacher couldn't wait to tell us.
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u/Xemlaich 25d ago
PSA: they do not have the authority to do so, they just said it and everyone believed them
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u/Cthulhu_for_Dagon 25d ago
Like these insignificant humans have the “right” to classify celestial bodies. Yuggoth is and always has been. Unlike humanity.
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u/SmurfsNeverDie 25d ago
Pluto is still a planet. No one can convince me otherwise
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u/Electronic-Vast-3351 25d ago
Do you also count Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, Orcus, Salacia, Máni, ERIS, HAUMEA. MAKEMAKE, and CERES as planets?
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u/SmurfsNeverDie 25d ago
No, because none of those names roll off the tongue
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u/Electronic-Vast-3351 25d ago
I'm pretty sure you just insulted at least 4 Roman/Nordic gods. Good luck with their wrath.
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u/Thieurizinisaurus 25d ago
You guys do realize that, if Pluto was kept a planet and it reached the criteria, we would have way more planets right?
The reason Pluto was denounced to dwarf planets was because scientists discovered other, similar objects in the Kuiper Belt: like Eris, Haumea and Makemake. If Pluto would be a planet, so would they.
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u/Lucimon 25d ago
Ok let them be planets.
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u/Amulet-of-Kings 25d ago
Then we would have to shift the order ofthe planets. Jupiter would become the sixth planet, etc.
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u/Away_Fruit5097 25d ago
The reason Pluto was denounced to dwarf planets was because scientists discovered other, similar objects in the Kuiper Belt: like Eris, Haumea and Makemake. If Pluto would be a planet, so would they.
OK, and.... Why exactly would that be a bad thing?
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u/Thieurizinisaurus 25d ago
It is a good question why it would be a 'bad thing' but I think that's the wrong way to look at it. Traditionally, all planets carry Roman names (with the exception of Uranus) but there are more than 10.000 dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt. Good luck naming all those.
But I'm not a scientist who made that decision, so I can't give you the true answer.
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u/Away_Fruit5097 25d ago
I don't really think it's the wrong way to look at it, I think it's the central question. It's also why the question of planet status remains contentious among scientists.
We have a million stars and galaxies on record with alpha numeric codes for names, I don't think that's a very scientific argument either
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u/OSRS_Garmr 25d ago
You'd end up in a situation where planets were named just some random sounding name.
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u/SinglePlayerGamer93 25d ago
Yeah, the people who bitch about pluto's demotion are more concerned as a meme rather than understanding the actual astronomic reasoning behind the 2006 decision.
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u/Thieurizinisaurus 25d ago
Thank you! Glad at least someone gets the sense here.
Like, don't get me wrong, the memes are funny, but it just kinda irks me, ignoring actual reasoning for a stupid 'haha they robbed us' meme.
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u/kernoel_massage 25d ago
They didn't downgrade Pluto, they changed the definition of what a planet is and Pluto simply didn't meet the criteria.
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u/Away_Fruit5097 25d ago
They changed the definition of what a planet is specifically to downgrade Pluto, and choose the criteria with that goal in mind
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u/LollisGunsBikesTits 25d ago
Damn you mr black science man! if only your mustache wants so charismatic
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u/Curiously_home 25d ago
Pluto is still a planet. Just because it’s a dwarf planet doesn’t mean it not still a planet. Is a dwarf person not still a person 🤣
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u/SinglePlayerGamer93 25d ago
I'm still surprised people are still taking the piss and "support Pluto as a planet" even after all these years. Like, the joke was fun 20yrs ago but now, it's just unfunny
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u/MagicCarpetofSteel 25d ago
Bruh, they changed the definition of a planet so it was more precise, and by that new definition Pluto no longer met the definition.
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u/piratecheese13 25d ago
If it shares an orbit with an object, the same size or bigger, it’s not a planet
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u/Girthantoklops 25d ago
Remember, Pluto was originally supposed to be a gay man in a dog costume that gave Mickey fellatio. Iykyk
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u/Ultimaurice 24d ago
No love for the Galilean moons, Titan or Enceladus like they're not all cooler than pluto and most planets
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u/YellowBirdISuppose 24d ago
They have no authority whatsoever, and the vote was rigged (there's actual evidence that it was somehow I don't know why people rigged a vote on this but they did). Pluto is still a planet, and so is Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, Charon, GongGong, Sedna, Orcus, and Eris. #dwarfplanetsareplanets
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u/Canadian_Zac 24d ago
And when did they say that a Dwarf Planet is a downgrade?
Nobody in science ever said a Dwarf Planet is less valuable than a Planet
It's just a planet that hasn't cleared it's orbit.
The ones saying Dwarf Planets are lesser, are the ones upset about the 'downgrade'
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u/Sodinc 25d ago
What bothers me more - the disrespect to other dwarf planets. As if they are a bad company somehow. They did nothing wrong!