I really hope this works. I was unable to log on to the last blog I created, and it was such a great rant.
Now I see that Pluto has been down-graded to a dwarf planet. Isn't that just a euphamism for asteroid with a pituitary problem?
What does this new status tell us about Pluto that we didn't already know? Does it change what Pluto is made of, alter its gravitational pull, or re-route its orbit?
Humans can't seem to understand anything unless they label it first.The whole process of language is arbitrary, but it's the only way we have to describe abstract ideas, and ideas are what make us able to explore our surroundings and name them. We think in words, labels, and we are bound by them.
The flaming gas ball that provides warmth and energy to us is the sun, and all those other specs in the night sky are just stars. Why stars? Because when they were named they appeared to be much smaller than our sun, our moon, and certainly smaller than our Earth.
We didn't re-name stars when we realized that they could be as big as or many times bigger than our own sun.
Bigger telescopes, more powerful computers, and passwords you didn't type in quite right. They're all so frustrating.
One wonders what Pluto we'll be called next season.
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4 comments:
Well, you know how I feel about this. I think we should strive to understand the world around us as best we can. Labeling the parts of the cosmos as accurately as possible helps us further our understanding. It is a constant process of learning more, updating our knowledge, relabeling as necessary. We need to be open to new understandings of the cosmos as we continue to learn more, and that means being open to reclassification.
Don't get me started on whose idiotic idea it was to call tomatoes a vegetable!
Speaking of gas balls, just yesterday I heard that the president enjoys as a "pass"-time passing gas. A bit of oval office humor for him, I guess. I can see him now: "Condy, pull my finger".
If we could harness the hot air in politics, we would have no energy problem, and more money to spend on scientific research & exploration.
Kelly, all I'm saying is that "dwarf planet" sounds like a compromise. I wonder if it truly describes Pluto or if it's just the name everyone could agree on.
What's most important is how Pluto got into its orbit around our sun. Was it formed when the sun was formed, or is it in fact a comet that got caught in the sun's gravitational pull?
One argument is that if an astral body has enough gravity to pull itself into a round shape,then it's a planet.
Another argument asks if Pluto is the biggest body in its general area or if there are other comparibly sized objects, e.g. Xena.
It's all pretty complicated and lots of rocks floating around out there aren't easily defined. Nature just won't stay in all our nice neat catagories, she does what she does and doesn't give a flap what we call it.
I wish humans had a means other than labels with which to understand thins, but we don't.
Dwarf planet doesn't seem right to me. It's kind of like Mini-Me.
Oh well. There are much more important issues, but isn't the Cosmos fascinating? We could argue about it for eternity.
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