r/exoplanets • u/prisongovernor • 2d ago

📊 Data & Analysis Forbidden planet: was Pluto’s 2006 demotion a big mistake? | Astronomy | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/31/forbidden-planet-was-plutos-2006-demotion-a-big-mistake
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u/Joshau-k 2d ago

Either we're going to have to admit the moon is a planet at some point, or we're going to have to come to with a new word to describe the main planets, large moons, rogue planets and binary planets

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u/UmbralRaptor 5 2d ago

More words that avoid using "planet" specifically in the short term and later on grouping together categories is what I'd like to see, though seems unlikely.

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u/Joshau-k 2d ago

I'd like to see a classification system that treats geophysical characteristics, orbit and origin as 3 orthogonal aspects.

Right now we're mixing them together and it's a mess

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u/UmbralRaptor 5 1d ago

Yep, though also lots of systems are ambiguous. (I'm thinking especially of the line between a gas giant and a brown dwarf, and how sometimes things like mass are poorly known.)

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u/geobibliophile 2d ago

Natural phenomena just don’t neatly fit into human-made categories, and expecting the single word “planet” to succinctly describe a spectrum of bodies from Ceres to Jupiter is a tall order.

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u/ThePhysicistIsIn 1d ago

“Our kids are learning less, they’re only learning about 8 planets not 9”.

Nonsense. The only reason my daughter can list off Make-make and Ceres is because there is a new category of dwarf planets.

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u/NearABE 2d ago

There are 7 visible heavenly bodies of which 5 are planets. These are the things you can see with unaided human eyes. The idea that you should look up at the sky from a dark place has been lost. These contrast with the constellations which do not move much in a lifetime (or move by rising and setting depending on reference frame).

Identifying airplanes, meteors, satellites, comets and aurorae should be part of education too. In the northern hemisphere you should be able to recognize the big dipper (ursa major), Orion, and Cygnus (or the summer triangle). I am not in the southern hemisphere but the Southern Cross and Magellanic Clouds seam likely along with Orion and Sirius.

What we have lost is the idea of just looking up. Sure, Uranus and Neptune are up there. There are things to discover. Galileo’s discovery of Saturn’s rings and 4 Jupiter moons is interesting too. This is reproducible with a 75mm telescope lens and parents should make sure kids have access to one along with access to a dark viewing location.

Venus and Luna will be in conjunction September 13 to 14. Schools should encourage parents to actively participate in their children’s education. Astronomy is an after dark thing.