[meteorite-list] OT: HOW MANY PLANETS?

[Norm Lehrman]

Doug, Sterling, and all you other amazing brains,

(Deity or planetary name of your choice), it's good to
to listen to you guys with IQs in the clouds.  Some
people do word-searches or crosswords to exercize
their brains.  For some of us, it's the MetList.

Thanks  (and Garcias to you, Doug---)
Norm
http://tektitesource.com 



--- MexicoDoug at aol.com wrote:

> Ron B. wrote:
> 
> >Incidently, if you demote Pluto from being a
> planet, then  the
> >definition for a planet becomes much easier.  If
> you  include
> >Pluto as a planet, then the definition is going to 
> get
> >more complicated.
>  
> Complicated it can be, not dumbed down, with or
> without  Pluto.  Arbitrary 
> numerical criteria are useless to science in the
> long run  whether they be "9 
> units", "20 degrees" or "3025 miles".  They are more
>  like taxing authorities 
> saying..."if you own more than 20% of the company's 
> stock, you must make 
> special declarations".  That is a foolish angle for 
> the IAU to put itself in, and 
> more typical of the thinking of mediocre  government
> employees or bureacrats 
> looking to reduce their workloads (not that  we
> aren't all guilty at times).
>  
> My personal thoughts of a planet rely on a permanent
> atmosphere  or proven or 
> potential geological process (major igneous
> activity,  liberally considered) 
> basis and prime orbit about the Sun.  If Earth 
> suddenly was catapulted into a 
> 25 degree inclination ...would it cease being a 
> planet?  Perhaps my 
> definition even excludes Pluto by not for a
> senseless  inclination cutoff, especially 
> after its hypothetical encounter with Neptune  sent
> it there, or perhaps not.  
> Vesta is always as bright or brighter than  Neptune,
> and occasionally trumps 
> Uranus, so something is out of wack  here...the
> ancients would have called 
> Vesta a wanderer if they didn't carelessly  overlook
> documenting it.  (It owes 
> that brightness to 'geo'logical  processes, namely
> the reflectivity of eucrite.)
>  
> If Earth were catapulted into the Kuiper Belt would
> it cease being a  planet? 
>  Wait until an Earth sized ball is found out
> there...How about  
> Differentiated Planets, Gaseous Planets, and Frozen
> Planets to replace the  "inner" and 
> "outer" planets?  Remember - for minor planets, a
> comet for all  practical 
> purposes becomes an asteroid - but it is still a
> minor planet,  under current use...
> Kids can still memorize the Inner, Gaseous and Pluto
> (because Pluto is  
> sometimes closer than Neptune, a very very important
> criterion from an earthly  
> viewpoint of numbering successively the billiard
> balls starting with  the bright 
> white cue, and all you have to do is say the first 9
> planets  out..)
> Saludos, Doug
>  
>  
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>