Pluto, It Was Nice Knowing You
By: Lance Winslow
The debate over Pluto seems to be over for scientists, which have demoted the farthest Planet. But most regular folks are still debating this subject and are not so happy with the ditching of Pluto as a Planet. What is so interesting is that even George Noory and Art Bell the late night talk show hosts, which often talk about UFOs are even getting into the action with hours of commentary from Space Experts and former NASA folks.
This is becoming a media circus and developing some headlines and of course changing a few Text Books, so the textbook writers ought to be intrigued and back in the money too soon. Pluto is No Longer Officially a Planet? One has to ask; should it have ever been a Planet anyway? The story of Pluto becoming a Planet and the Search for Planet X is an interesting one in that they were looking for it because they thought it should be there, but were not sure where it was. In fact they were looking for something that was causing another Planet to act differently because they mistakenly thought its mass was greater than we now know it to actually be. Thus Pluto was found by mistake and thought to be bigger than it is and was labeled a planet when in actuality, that was probably the incorrect thing to do. The Search for Planet X is a good book to read if you ever get a chance. Meanwhile, nostalgia collectors are having a field day with this on eBay indeed.
http://www.space.com/entertainment/cs_060825_pluto_collect.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060824_planet_definition.html
However you feel about our furthest Planet may no longer matter to scientists or future textbooks, but in our school days few of us ever missed the test question of what was the furthest planet. We all know that as Pluto. Consider all this in 2006.
Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/