The Astronomy Thread

Pluto mountains picture in spoiler for size. Scene is 230 miles across.


More:Pluto 'Wows' in Spectacular New Backlit Panorama | NASA

How lucky is that? Pluto has an ocean, and we managed to get a pretty good look at it.

Dwarf planet.. yeah..

Big Phoenix_sl said:

Such an idiotic definition. Should of just been spherical due to size/mass and completely differentiated inside. People were scared that we might of had 15 planets all the sudden.

Click to expand...

A line needed to be drawn somewhere. If it's drawn to include Pluto, eventually we'll end up with at least a couple dozen. Pluto has far more in common with Ceres, Vesta, Eris, Quorar, Makemake, and a bunch of other KBOs than it does with the rest of the planets. That doesn't mean it's not a really interesting and important object. It's just different.

It's funny how buttmad so many people are about it.

There's a nice exhibition in London of early Soviet space exploration. I'm not sure I'd like to ride into orbit inside this thing:





Science Museum's Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age reviewed | Ars Technica UK

I'll take one or two of those salient peninsulas near the big ocean. I figure beach-side property should be worth the most in the end. Once the lizards take over tomorrow, that is.

67MB full shot of pluto:http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/fi...ed_release.png

When I look at Vesta and Ceres they look completely different than Pluto. I could care less if Pluto is a planet or not but from a simple layman they don't look even close to the same.

Kedwyn_sl said:

When I look at Vesta and Ceres they look completely different than Pluto. I could care less if Pluto is a planet or not but from a simple layman they don't look even close to the same.

Click to expand...

Do Earth and Jupiter look the same to you?

Eomer_sl said:

Do Earth and Jupiter look the same to you?

Click to expand...

Are you trying to claim that one isn't a planet?

When I look at Ceres and Vesta they look like moons or asteroids. They have no distinguishing features to me what so ever that make them planet like. In Vesta's case its not even shaped correctly. Looking at Pluto that isn't the case there also seems to be some actual geology going on there among a lot more interesting shit going on.

He's saying how similar or dissimilar they may look is irrelevant.

Lenas_sl said:

He's saying how similar or dissimilar they may look is irrelevant.

Click to expand...

For being a planet yes. I'm simply saying I wish there were other classifications for these bodies based on Geologic activity. It doesn't seem fair to lump Pluto in with these dead cratered worlds. Especially if it turns out that Pluto does in fact have an active core driving its geology.

Don't some of Saturn's moons have geologic activity as well?