Pluto renamed to No. 134340

[Unklemonkey]

Pluto has been given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet.

On Sept. 7, the former 9th planet was assigned the asteroid number 134340 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the official organization responsible for collecting data about asteroids and comets in our solar system.


The move reinforces the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) recent decision to strip Pluto of its planethood and places it in the same category as other small solar-system bodies with accurately known orbits.


Pluto's companion satellites, Charon, Nix and Hydra are considered part of the same system and will not be assigned separate asteroid numbers, said MPC director emeritus Brian Marsden. Instead, they will be called 134340 I, II and III, respectively.


There are currently 136,563 asteroid objects recognized by the MPC; 2,224 new objects were added last week, of which Pluto was the first.


Other notable objects to receive asteroid numbers included 2003 UB313, also known as "Xena," and the recently discovered Kuiper Belt objects 2003 EL61 and 2005 FY9. Their asteroid numbers are 136199, 136108 and 136472, respectively.


The MPC also issued a separate announcement stating that the assignment of permanent asteroid numbers to Pluto and other large objects located beyond the orbit of Neptune "does not preclude their having dual designations in possible separate catalogues of such bodies."


Marsden explained that the cryptic wording refers to the future possibility of creating a separate astronomical catalogue specific to dwarf planets. There might even be more than one catalogue created, he said.


The recent IAU decision implies "that there would be two catalogues of dwarf planets-one for just the trans-Neptunian Pluto type and the other for objects like Ceres, which has also been deemed a dwarf planet," Marsden told SPACE.com. "That's why that statement was put there, to reassure people who think there would be other catalogues that this numbering of Pluto doesn't preclude that."

How retarded lol. And lol @ the picture with the people holding signs "Size dosn't matter!"

[Charitwo]

source?

[Not Kuno]

I'd like #8675309 better.

[Krandor]

Are we still allowed to call it Pluto?

[Rocl]

I'M SO ANGRY

[Charitwo]

Rocl you got the Hoff sig back, score...

[darkdeath]

I guess we can still call him pluto. fuck this: "I saw 132340 on the telescope dad!".

[Daahan]

In my heart, Pluto will always be a planet.

[Xavier]

This is clearly a sign that some people have way too much free time.

Who gives a fk about classifying Pluto as something other than a planet.

[Andarvi]

This is clearly a sign that some people have way too much free time.

Who gives a fk about classifying Pluto as something other than a planet.

well luckily for humanity we no longer have disease or any other threat to us so what else are we going to spend the money on?

[Unklemonkey]

Oops, was writing a paper when I wrote this, forgot the link. http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060911/ ... mber134340

Sorry

[Hellboy]

i wish i had the photoshop skill to do what im thinking for this..
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...sh-Posters.jpg

[Ryko]

This is clearly a sign that some people have way too much free time.

I was going to say that but then a big 500 lb weight labeled irony landed on my head ._.

[Lordwafik]

It's still pluto in my eyes.

IT HAS A NAME NOT A NUMBER.

Pluto has feelings too.

[Coren]

The flip side was that we give names to every object in the solar system larger than pluto (but vaguely spheroid-shaped) a name and call it a plant.

/fast forward 25 years

our kids>> "mom/dad, help memorize the planets for science class.... all 175 of them"
....
doh!

[Khamsin]

I guess we can still call him pluto. fuck this: "I saw 132340 on the telescope dad!".

You noob, you can't see 132340 from Earth. 134340, however, is visible under the right conditions.

btw, the reasoning for Pluto's demotion wasn't because of its size, it was because it hasn't cleared its orbit (i.e. it's orbit doesn't consist of just itself, it crosses paths with Neptune).

Of course, some astronomers complained that Neptune hasn't cleared its orbit either, then, because it crosses paths with Pluto, so there is some controversy involved in the new definition of a planet.

Some other planets, including Earth, have also not cleared their orbits (there is a collection of asteroids that follow in Earth's, Jupiter's, and other planets' orbit).

Yet the new definition of a planet includes that a planet must clear its orbit, that is.. over the course of the billions of years they've been orbiting the sun, they would completely sweep clear anything in their path and not intersect or share an orbit with anything else.

[Awoir]

The flip side was that we give names to every object in the solar system larger than pluto (but vaguely spheroid-shaped) a name and call it a plant.

/fast forward 25 years

our kids>> "mom/dad, help memorize the planets for science class.... all 175 of them"
....
doh!

Why when I was your age...we had 9 planets, AND WE LIKED THEM

[Nighty]

The flip side was that we give names to every object in the solar system larger than pluto (but vaguely spheroid-shaped) a name and call it a plant.

/fast forward 25 years

our kids>> "mom/dad, help memorize the planets for science class.... all 175 of them"
....
doh!

Why when I was your age...we had 9 planets, AND WE LIKED THEM

I like this one better: Why when I was your age... we had a planet named Pluto but people didn't like him so they put him down and changed his name

[Stilgar]

I guess we can still call him pluto. fuck this: "I saw 132340 on the telescope dad!".

You noob, you can't see 132340 from Earth. 134340, however, is visible under the right conditions.

btw, the reasoning for Pluto's demotion wasn't because of its size, it was because it hasn't cleared its orbit (i.e. it's orbit doesn't consist of just itself, it crosses paths with Neptune).

Of course, some astronomers complained that Neptune hasn't cleared its orbit either, then, because it crosses paths with Pluto, so there is some controversy involved in the new definition of a planet.

Some other planets, including Earth, have also not cleared their orbits (there is a collection of asteroids that follow in Earth's, Jupiter's, and other planets' orbit).

Yet the new definition of a planet includes that a planet must clear its orbit, that is.. over the course of the billions of years they've been orbiting the sun, they would completely sweep clear anything in their path and not intersect or share an orbit with anything else.

WTF so Earth isn't a planet either now?

[½pint]

/equip Main "134340's Staff"