We have assumed control... We have assumed control...

:confused: Ric are you sending a secret message.

Yup.. I'm calling up the troops!

Are we kicking Pluto out of the club?

Actually Pluto is in as well as three new planets...

This is the new order of planets:

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon, and the provisionally named 2003 UB313

Wow, this is big news!

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060815/060815_12planetsV2_hlarg_2p.hlarge.jpg

"We have assumed control, we have assumed control, we have assumed control..." *Guitar feedback*

I liked the name Xena! Which was the working name of 2003 UB313.

I thought I read somewhere the new one was going to be named Xena

BTW saturn is pretty cool, but stay away from uranus

Where did Ceres come from? A few rocks in the asteroid belt decide to get together and form a planet?

And its no wonder we haven't found ET yet, we still hadn't found all the planets in our own system.

We have assumed control... We have assumed control...


Pretty cool news. Isn't that the intro to fom a Rush song?

I thought it was a finale?

Wow, this is big news!

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060815/060815_12planetsV2_hlarg_2p.hlarge.jpg

Gives a great idea of the size of planets as well as insigificant we are as humans.

Which is why I think alien beings are either 10,000% smaller than us, or 10,000% larger than us. Making them hard to spot. :p

Which is why I think alien beings are either 10,000% smaller than us, or 10,000% larger than us. Making them hard to spot. :p

correct
They live in mushroom spore galaxies

Gives a great idea of the size of planets as well as insigificant we are as humans.
It would make you feel even more insignificant if the space between them was to scale. :confused:

I thought it was a finale?


Yeah, I think you're right. Haven't heard them lately since my cd's went up in smoke and I barely listen to the radio anymore.

I thought it was a finale?

Yep, with the big crash and stuff immediately following. Very cool!! Next tune in line jams too!! Ok... the whole album rocks :D

I just bought the R30 DVD set. Very nice indeed!! Not only do you get the DVDs of the concert, but you also get a set of CDs too so you can play it on the road :thumbsup:

It would make you feel even more insignificant if the space between them was to scale. :confused:

Road trips on Jupiter would suck!

Road trips on Jupiter would suck!


Umm could I make it on a full tank? What kind of mpg would the Explorer get in zero gravity?

combustion cannot happen with no o2 so not very good mileage, or light years per gallon, whatever :)

Instead of filling up with gas or hydrogen you would fill up with oxygen in order burn the gasses that were all around you in the atmosphere. Oxygen would cost tree fivty a gallon:D Damn succubus!!!

Rick...you are rapidly becoming my hero. A Rush fan and 'sploder guru. I bow to you, oh, great one.

In yet another example of government waste (not even touching on military action, etc.) don't get me started on how much money is wasted by the space program.

My quick math tells me my truck would wiegh exactly 50 bagillion pounds on Jupiter. Better check the tire pressure

In yet another example of government waste (not even touching on military action, etc.) don't get me started on how much money is wasted by the space program.
Yeah, this can't be coincidence:
They are now voting to change the rules so that Ceres, which was first found in 1801 and called an asteroid, will officially be called a "dwarf planet".
And at the same time NASA project 'Dawn', which will research Ceres and Vesta (another asteroid) gets reinstated, and is now planning for launch next year.

It's all a bunch of crap we've known about these "planets" for years, but now all of a sudden 3 or them are deemed to be actual planets. It's all just a waste of money, probably billions just to replace or correct now out of date science books.

It would make you feel even more insignificant if the space between them was to scale. :confused:

Very true.

So now we are down to 8 planets: :confused:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14489259/?GT1=8404

Poor Pluto:(

In my day, Pluto was a planet, and we liked it that way!

I can just hear us when we are grandparents..."When I was a kid, we had 9 planets, not 8. You young kids have it easy only memorizing 8...."

How do we have Pluto as a planet for so long, and now all of a sudden it's not?

^^ What he said...!?

I love how money can be spent. Why the f does it matter if a planet is classified as a planet or not? I am sure there are 40 year old dorks living with their parents that are freaking out across the world...

ALL ABOUT PLUTO

• Pluto's day: 6.4 Earth days.
• Pluto's year: 248 Earth years.
• Average distance from sun: 3.7 billion miles, or 5.9 billion kilometers.
• What's in a name? Pluto is also the name of the Roman god of the underworld. It was suggested by many people, but credit was given to an 11-year-old girl from England.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Photos/050214/PlutoUSA.gif

How do we have Pluto as a planet for so long, and now all of a sudden it's not?


It was found in the 1930's 80 some years a blink of an eye in the solar system. :p It's not like got rid of the sun :rolleyes:

But, I grew up learning about it as a planet. Now I'm sad...

Well, being scientists they couldn't have a grey area; either Pluto isn't a planet, and we have only 8 planets OR Pluto is a planet and there are actually 12 planets in our system.
Personally I think a grandfather clause would have worked nicely. :D

One of the articles I read was calling all the dwarf planets Plutons. LOL

No kidding pluto should be grandfathered in.

As a kid I always felt sorry for pluto, being so small and cold, always being kicked around

ALL ABOUT PLUTO

• Pluto's day: 6.4 Earth days.
• Pluto's year: 248 Earth years.
• Average distance from sun: 3.7 billion miles, or 5.9 billion kilometers.
• What's in a name? Pluto is also the name of the Roman god of the underworld. It was suggested by many people, but credit was given to an 11-year-old girl from England.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Photos/050214/PlutoUSA.gif

Wow that's cool, I've never seen it put into this scale before.. get it closer to the sun and it would make a nice mini-earth :D

Left out one tidbit. The planet was first discovered from an observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. Arizonan's are bummed that we lost "our" planet :D

This article is from 2005.

Discovery of Pluto Reaches 75th Anniversary

Flagstaff, AZ—The planet Pluto turns 75 this month. Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth planet in the solar system on the afternoon of February 18, 1930 while he meticulously examined a pair of deep sky photographs at Lowell Observatory. Tombaugh exposed the photographs on two nights in late January using the Observatory's 13-inch Abbott Lawrence Lowell Telescope. Then, as part of the carefully planned and executed planet search, Tombaugh "blinked" the two exposures using a machine called a comparator, looking for motion of objects captured on film.

"One need only visit Lowell Observatory and view copies of the discovery images through the same eyepiece used by Clyde Tombaugh to appreciate what a remarkable discovery this was," said Bob Millis, Director. "The images are extremely faint and testify to the skill, concentration, and dedication that Clyde Tombaugh brought to his work."

Lowell Observatory's search for a ninth planet was begun by founder Percival Lowell in 1905. While Dr. Lowell did not live to see the discovery of Pluto, the Observatory made the official announcement of the discovery on Percival Lowell's birth date, March 13, 1930. After many suggestions, Pluto was selected as the name for the new planet. As an added plus, the astronomical community adopted a symbol for the planet that also was a combination of Percival Lowell's initials. Eleven-year-old Venetia Burney from Oxford, England suggested the name.

Several Lowell Observatory astronomers continue to study Pluto, including Marc Buie and Will Grundy. Marc Buie has studied the cold, dark outer regions of the solar system —with a special interest in Pluto —since the early 1980s. Buie is conducting a long-term project to monitor Pluto's brightness changes on decade, or longer, time scales. One of his recent, ongoing projects is aimed at producing a new generation of Pluto maps based on images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Buie has developed a small, high-performance computing cluster for this project at the Observatory.

Will Grundy, Lowell Associate Astronomer, studies icy surfaces of outer solar system objects including Pluto, the icy satellites of giant planets, centaurs, and Kuiper Belt Objects. Grundy is a science team member on NASA's New Horizons: A Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission.

"In the past decade, we have progressed from thinking of Pluto as a barely resolved 14th magnitude point of light to seeing it as a unique world with complicated seasonal cycles and with surface regions exhibiting diverse appearances and chemical compositions," Grundy said.

To complement the astronomy research that includes these ongoing Pluto studies, Lowell Observatory maintains an active educational and outreach program. The Observatory will present a Pluto 75th anniversary program on the evening of Friday, February 18 as part of its regular evening programs. The nighttime program consists of a special Cosmic Cart at 7:45 p.m., a series of demonstrations particularly suitable for children. This will be followed by a lecture about Pluto at 8:30 p.m. The Observatory opens at 7:30 p.m. and telescope viewing will occur throughout the evening, weather permitting.

In addition to its Pluto research, Lowell Observatory has ongoing and long-term programs to identify near-Earth asteroids, survey a region of the solar system beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt, conduct decades-long research on the sun and sun-like stars, study comets, search for extrasolar planets, and pursue a variety of astrophysical investigations. The Observatory is also building the Discovery Channel Telescope, a partnership with Discovery Communications that will produce a versatile, powerful 4.2-meter telescope.

Lowell Observatory's mission is to pursue the study of astronomy, especially the study of our solar system and its evolution; to conduct pure research in astronomical phenomena; and to maintain quality public education and outreach programs to bring the results of astronomical research to the general public. The Observatory was founded in 1894. Visit www.lowell.edu.

Posted on nasawatch.com:

This is Making The Rounds at JPL
Union of Plutonic States Contests Earthlings' Demotion of its Status. No Retaliation Planned, But Planned Aid May Be Delayed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - FRIGEON, August 24, 2006/Plutonic News via Deep Space Net/ -- /The High Council of the Union of Plutonic States notes with the greatest disappointment that the inhabitants of the third rock from the Sun, otherwise known as Earth, have unilaterally declared that Pluto is no longer a planet.


"It is very odd that a group of university professors a billion klurchniks from here would presume to change the status of our home planet" said High Council General Convener Blanpik Vogonj. "Nothing is any different here, in spite of their unfortunate action."

Other members of the High Council were less diplomatic in their comments. "For heaven's sake, they don't even know what we look like," barked Council Under-Minion Tork Uwapht. "The most they've seen of us is a smudge from their Rubble [sic] Space Telescope. They haven't the foggiest idea what this place is like."

Large crowds of demonstrators were reported in several cities. The perseverance and dedication of the people was evident, given that with the atmosphere beginning to freeze, breathing outdoors can be painful. Demands for retaliation could be heard in some quarters, but most people expressed disappointment and surprise at the Earthlings' misunderstanding or reality.

Convener Vogonj was quick to assure people that there would be no offensive against Earth. "This is a time for pity and understanding, not anger." When pressed about potential future aid for Earth, though, the Convener was less serene.

"It's well-known that Earth is experiencing a severe global warming phenomenon that has the capability to do great harm to what is considered life on that planet. While Earth should solve this problem on its own, their leadership seems to have a hard time recognizing it, and by the time they do, it will probably be too late" noted his Generality.

Taking a sterner tone, he continued, "We had been considering offering them an interplanetary heat-pump system that would solve their warming problem, as well as give us a slightly milder winter. That doesn't seem workable now, because we're no longer a planet in their opinion. It will be said to see them gradually heat up and drown, but that's their choice."

Some High Councilors were less disturbed by the news, while others were almost elated. Minion Toxbo Frmxi released a statement applauding the decision. "All Plutonians should be relieved to hear that Earthlings don't think of us as a planet. Just look at what they've done to the other planets: Mercury and Venus have been spied upon; Jupiter and Saturn have had orbiting space machines taking photographs of everything, while Uranus and Neptune were nearly impacted by something whizzing past, cameras clicking the whole time. And Mars—it has been landed upon, penetrated, driven over, and even now has a swarm of satellites flying around it. They are as thick as mosquitoes in summertime, whatever summer is. We are fortunate to be saved from this fate."

Aaahhh, we'll just let Duck Dodgers loose on the Plutonians and that'll whip 'em into line....

Leave Pluto alone, it's just fine remaining as a planet.

Common knowledge states that a 4.56 gear is a lower gear than a 3.73 gear. This is absolutely false, wrong, incorrect, etc, yet no one is willing to admit it, let alone change it.

Same concept, everybody accepts that Pluto is a planet, it roughly fits the description, it orbits Earth. Leave Pluto alone, it's just fine remaining as a planet. Regards,