No Ice Ball Left Behind
An article on the Seed Magazine featured online, they're talking about why there are only
8 planets in our solar system.
Which one dissapeared? Well, listen to this story first:
In 2005, astrologer Mike Brown in Cal-Tech announced that he found a "planet-like object" that was bigger than Pluto. Mike Brown named it Eris. Eris, located in the Kuiper Belt. However, the Kuiper Belt is just a swath of icy debris left behind after the formation of the solar system (Seed Magazine, 2007). And techinically, a frozen rock of methane does not count as a real planet.
So here goes, Pluto is actually: just frozen rock of methane. Surprise? So, if Pluto was a planet, Eris would have to be one too. Or, they would have to get rid of Pluto and leave our solar system one planet less. Basically, it was either plus one or minus one. Which one's better?
It turned out that minus one was better. Because when the International Astronomical Union raged on with this debate over Eris and Pluto, the Planet Definition Committee decided to add Eris to our solar system.
But wait, there's a catch here. Eris has 40 other brothers that are:
1) also popsickles of frozen methane
2) also orbit around the sun
They added them anyways, because of their policy of:
"No Ice Ball Left Behind"
Swt....lol...That's a first.
But in the end, due to the outrageous implications it held, Pluto along with all it's 41 other cousins were cut off from our solar system and now we are left with only 8 planets! What happened next was extremely dramatic:
"Disney pledged not to rename the cartoon character. The American Federation of Astrologers defiantly announced that "Pluto is still an effective energy source whose influence is felt on this earth." Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, struck a reassuring tone: "Pluto's still the same Pluto. It's still up there doing exactly the same thing." Planetarium gift shops were suddenly stocked with shelves of obsolete merchandise. Legions of disappointed children—"Pluto has the best name!"—organized a letter-writing campaign demanding that the IAU decision be overturned. The Smithsonian's Pluto marker became the site of a makeshift memorial, complete with melancholy condolence notes" (Seed Magazine, 2007).
Turns out that our most-adored-little-Ice Ball was left behind anyway...
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