Poor Pluto. It's so small and so far away from the sun that even though we thought of it as a planet, we didn't pay much attention to it. Then we started realizing it had neighbors that were quite similar. And on Thursday, it happened; Pluto was declassified and it is no longer a planet. It will now be considered a dwarf planet, to be joined by other objects, one of which is larger than Pluto, 2003 UB 313, (undoubtedly named after the Detroit telephone area code). But Pluto is still the same celestial object it always was. I say we call it an "honorary planet". It fulfilled its former planet role quite nicely, never causing any trouble, just orbiting out there in the vast coldness of our outer solar system.
As for the implications on the rest of society now that Pluto is not a planet, books, models, websites, toys and a whole bunch of other things will have to be changed at major expense to businesses everywhere. However, there will be some notoriety that comes with "old school" objects showing Pluto as a planet. I'm sure you'll see them on eBay and Craigslist soon. At least we're removing a planet. That's much easier than adding one. People are even concerned over how kids will remember the planets. We had learned a song with the words... "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza pies." I say we internationalize it and teach... "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Naan. Here are some more suggestions. And now what will happen to the famous Disney 
character Pluto, Goofy's dog? Is he now less of a dog? Will plutonium become less potent for use in nuclear weapons? Only time will tell. Welcome to the post-Plutonian era.
+ Atul
How strange. We're both interview with blogger subjects over on Bellarossa and we had similar posts about Pluto.
Must be a conspiracy :}
like mind control through our coookies or something.
Posted by: chancelucky | September 01, 2006 at 11:19 AM