Pluto Has Been Demoted to NON-Planet Status

[Annie]

I've always taught it as 'My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas.' I guess now it'll be 'My very educated mother just served us...nothing.'

I saw it your way on a site I looked at last night. Either way it works but both ways are missing something now. Hope kids are not expected to learn the names of all the dwarf planets now. We go in a short time from expecting to have some more added to having one taken away. Not only are the textbooks obsolete but many kinds of teaching materials.

 

[Dark Knight]

(AP) "My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas." That and variations on it are the way millions of people learned to remember the names of the planets in the solar system — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. The problem is that an international convention of astronomers decreed Thursday that tiny Pluto no longer meets the definition of a planet.

What a way to spoil a good mnemonic. Now how will students learn the planets?

Some possibilities:

_My Very Extravagant Mother Just Sent Us Nachos.

_My Very Elderly Mother Just Sits Up Nights.

_Major Volcanoes Erupt, Making Jolts, Shaking, Unsteadying Nerves.

_Make Very Extraordinary Meals of Jell-O, Strawberries and Unsalted Nuts.

_Mary's Violet Eyes Make Jack Stare Until Noticed.

_My Very Exotic Mistress Just Showed Up Nude (perhaps this one is for college lads).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060825/ap_on_sc/family_of_the_sun&printer=1

 

[Annie]

(AP) "My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas." That and variations on it are the way millions of people learned to remember the names of the planets in the solar system — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. The problem is that an international convention of astronomers decreed Thursday that tiny Pluto no longer meets the definition of a planet.

What a way to spoil a good mnemonic. Now how will students learn the planets?

Some possibilities:

_My Very Extravagant Mother Just Sent Us Nachos.

_My Very Elderly Mother Just Sits Up Nights.

_Major Volcanoes Erupt, Making Jolts, Shaking, Unsteadying Nerves.

_Make Very Extraordinary Meals of Jell-O, Strawberries and Unsalted Nuts.

_Mary's Violet Eyes Make Jack Stare Until Noticed.

_My Very Exotic Mistress Just Showed Up Nude (perhaps this one is for college lads).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060825/ap_on_sc/family_of_the_sun&printer=1

You were BAD with that last one!!! STOP!!! Don't go any farther!!! No telling what you might come up with!

 

[Dark Knight]

You were BAD with that last one!!! STOP!!! Don't go any farther!!! No telling what you might come up with!

*I* didn't write these, the AP did, LOL! :slap:

 

[LButler]

Wonder how much money they've spent on gathering enough info to excommunicate Pluto??!!

 

[montana_16]

I smell a lawsuit coming from the Plutonians! :crazy:

 

[Taximom]

Pluto is now officially called a Plutoid. http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080611/sc_space/plutonowcalledaplutoid

The International Astronomical Union has decided on the term "plutoid" as a name for dwarf planets like Pluto.

Sidestepping concerns of many astronomers worldwide, the IAU's decision, at a meeting of its Executive Committee in Oslo, comes almost two years after it stripped Pluto of its planethood and introduced the term "dwarf planets" for Pluto and other small round objects that often travel highly elliptical paths around the sun in the far reaches of the solar system.

The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III and by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN), and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, according to a statement released today.

Here's the official new definition:

"Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit." (more at link)

 

[philamena]

Plutoid :waitasec:
Nope, don't llike it. lol

 

[Jesikah1]

Plutoid :waitasec:
Nope, don't llike it. lol

I totally agree, it'll always be Pluto the planet to me! Despite the demotion!

 

[Linda7NJ]

I totally agree, it'll always be Pluto the planet to me! Despite the demotion!

Agree!

 

[southcitymom]

Poor plutoid! Oh, the ignominy!