Pluto Demoted!

[Dragonfire]

Yep, that's right everyone, Pluto is no longer a planet. Time to redo the solar system maps and rewrite the textbooks.

Link to the story

The agency that creates the rules said that it's not a planet because the orbit overlaps Neptune's. Poor Pluto...

[xxShannon]

When I read the title at first I thought you were talking about Mickey's dog. xD

It seems kind of silly. What is the government going to do? Pay all schools to replace now incorrect science textbooks?

How long do you think it's going to take for all schools to actually get books that now include that information?

One teacher at my high school said that at one point they were using a textbook in 1985 that said "one day man will land on the moon" (no joke.)

And what about all those sayings that help you remember the planets' names? =o

[thelilbear]

aw, poor pluto! Well, at least it gets to be a dwarf planet.
Yeah, that's a lot of textbooks to change.

[Dragonfire]

It'll take 10 years at least to get the textbooks changed, because of the way the different state governments distribute the books. Apparently at my old high school the books had to be 10 years old before they could get new ones (and not to mention I took French 5 the whole year WITHOUT a textbook... That was horrible).

[Paul]

One teacher at my high school said that at one point they were using a textbook in 1985 that said "one day man will land on the moon" (no joke.)

Which would've meant the book was 16 years old. .. Or you messed up the date.

To be honest, replacing every textbook because of a inevitable progression-of-though is stupid. Any good teacher would be able to work around the outdated information, and any good student would ignore the innacuracy instead of blurting out "But sir, it says here Pluto is one 'the nine planets'! But it isn't!"

[Shoyru_Lover]

Nooo! I love pluto! Think of how all those Plutonians must feel right now

[DM was on fire!]

Everything I know (about the planets) is now a lie.

[Jasujo]

Pluto will always be a planet to me like the brontosaurus will always be one of my favorite dinosaurs. Take that, advanced science! *shakes fist*

[Tymaporer]

I heard a different story...my dad sent me an email at camp telling me about an article that said that they decided that Pluto did qualify as a planet, and also that there's 45 more ice rocks that fit whatever criteria they used to come to that conclusion. He said that the solar system would need a flag like the US, with 9 stripes and 54 stars.

*rolls eyes*

[Kugetsu]

What's going to happen to "My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas"? And all of the other things like that (THERE MUST BE PIZZAAA)? I don't think that just because some people decided that something that has been called a planet for a long time isn't really a planet, that the people that were brought up on it being a planet are going to stop calling it that. I would even think that some teachers would have a hard time adapting to that. Heck, I will always consider it a planet, unless I have some sort of class in college that brainwashes me of everything I've ever learned.

[Combusken BG]

There's no point to any of this constant changing. As far as I'm concerned, it is still a planet regardless what they say.

[Dragonfire]

Well, it's now part of a group of objects in the solar system called "dwarf planets", so it's a planet, but at the same time it's not...

[Paul]

Let get this right again, so it isn't a planet, but it's a "dwarf planet".. which makes it a planet.. but it isn't.. it's a dwarf planet.

[DM was on fire!]

Let get this right again, so it isn't a planet, but it's a "dwarf planet".. which makes it a planet.. but it isn't.. it's a dwarf planet.

...
Huh?

It's not a dwarf planet. It's a "pluton", or some junk like that.
Or atleast, that's what the local news said.

[Jens]

Yes, Pluto is a dwarf planet, but together with Ceres and Xena it's still called a planet.

So, when people ask how many planets we have in our solar system, you'll have to answer: "8 or 11"