12 Planets

[den]

Congratulations Pluto for being confirmed into the Planet club! And congrats to Charon, UB313 and Ceres on your promotions!

HOORAY!

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

The proposal hasn't been ratified yet (IIRC, the official vote is on the 24th). There's a great deal of politicking about this particular issue; people feel very strongly about it.

I haven't quite decided where I stand on the issue. My instinct is that we need to trash the word "planet" and come up with new and different words to describe the various things out there, but I know that'll never happen.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I think the word came from Greek, meaning "Wanderer" and was used to refer to the plantes visible before Telescopes were invented. By that definition, Saturn is the furthest-most planet; everything else is not visible to the unaided eye.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

You are correct. The classical planets (which include the sun and the moon) are called that because they "wander" across the sky against the background of fixed stars.