Comments on: Pluto Demoted, No Longer A Planet

Astronomers OK New Guidelines Cutting Planets In Solar System From 9 to 8

[dragongirl22]

""Deep down inside, I know this is the right thing to do. It's sad. As of today, I have no longer discovered a planet." [Michael Brown, discoverer of Pluto]

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.

Don't people take the time to check their facts anymore??"

Ummmm.....if you look just a few paragraphs higher, you'll see that Michael Brown discovered 2003 UB313, which would also have gained planet status if the earlier definition had passed. Hence the "no longer discovered a planet" remark.

...talk about checking facts...

[buzzygirl-2009]

"Deep down inside, I know this is the right thing to do. It's sad. As of today, I have no longer discovered a planet." [Michael Brown, discoverer of Pluto]

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.

Don't people take the time to check their facts anymore??

[hamr0344]

How much are these people getting paid out of our and other nations peoples pockets? I'm quite sure a good portion of the money that our astronomers are getting to make these difficult decisions is coming out of our taxes. And if I am correct they are making out pretty well. I can't imagine that our government is paying them to decide if a rock that has been called a planet for more than 76 years is a planet or not. If there isn't more important things for these geniuses to figure out, how about we take what they are making and get school books for children and schools that need them? Just a thought!!!

[nothappyatall]

Geez, a kid goes to school CRYING because of reclassifying a planet??? I guess I've heard everything now... As far as this goes, who cares what they name a stupid rock out in space?? call it a planet, call it a brown golf ball, all this time wasted on frivolous garbage that doesn't mean a thing to society while so many important issues go begging is nothing short of criminal.

[bfroggy-2009]

I agree that there are more important issues in the world, but I dont think that astronomers are the ones to tackle them. Unless you think that all these astronomers could fix the middle east crisis if they werent so distracted with classifying planets.

[griffin165]

With all of the really important issues facing the world today, worrying about the classification of planets by size seems extremely pointless and a waste of time to me. Pluto is a planet, enough said!

[ronniehm]

And yet it's comical that scientists speak with certainty about things that are a billion times more complex than classifying a hunk of rock. Let's face it. We don't know squat. Pick your favorite controversial scientific debate, and I guarantee that neither side knows what they're talking about.

[apdepetris]

I think it all has to do with sales. Look at how many schools, etc. that will now have to buy new pictures/diagrams of the solar system. It reminds me of the days when I was in school and we had that plastic model of the solar system that lit up and you could move all the planets around the sun to show their orbit. Well, I guess that's garbage now.

[lochlan-2009]

THESE SCIENTISTS ARE A BUNCH OF IDIOTS!! Is Mercury a planet? Let's play with the definition of a planet and we can ommit some more rocks, revovling around the sun.

[kujo441]

Please tell me how it is "unclear" how this may affect the New Horizons spacecraft's mission to Pluto. Do you think after four years of designing, building, and launching a spacecraft that they're going to change the mission in-flight because of some international union's statement? New Horizons is now going to Uranus. Have your writer pull his thumb out by 2015.

[abigail4476]

Sometimes logical conclusions are overrated. The definition of what a planet is should be formed based on the existing list, and then allow inclusion of any other objects that fit in the resulting category.

In addition, some logically minded scholars seriously overrate their own logic and importance.

[jairod]

If Pluto is not a planet, then neither is Jupitor. Whereas Pluto is a small rock compared to earth, Jupitor is a gaseous giant with no rock, that has been revealed. So, what those giant minds need to decide is that if Jupitor is accepted as a planet, then any coherent gaseous object in space can be considered a planet. And, further, if size counts, Earth Mars, Venus, and Mercury should not be considered a planets, too. Just a thought.

[honeybee217-2009]

I hope for the sake of a little boy that Pluto gets to retain its status as a planet.

My 8 year old son Tyler (Tombaugh) went to school in tears this morning after watching your news and said, "Mom! You have to tell them! You can't let them take OUR planet away! They're going to make Pluto disappear!"

He was so filled with pride last year when he made a special presentation to his class on his family hero, Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto.

And, in another heart wrenching thought that shows the reasoning only an eight year old can possess, Tyler added: "And what about poor Mickey? Will he have to rename his dog?"