Sterling W. wrote:
>Then, there would then be three classes of planets: the Terrestrial, >the Jovian, and the Plutonian planets. Hola Sterling; I'm on board with just one reservation. With all this hullabaloo going on about with Pluto in the spotlight and reticence to accept these huge, much larger-than-asteroid-sized round, errr thingies way out there that look like....well...errr...planets, on technical knock out decisions (TKOs) I can't help thinking that Jovian "planets" Jupiter and Saturn should be stripped of their planetary status while IAU is re-inventing a concept more ancient than the wheel...Jupiter has a LLLLLLLOT more in common with a brown dwarf star than a planet for my taste, and the accepted fact that a brown dwarf cannot sustain nuclear fusion (and only for a brief period in its lifetime fused deuterium). Any business about independent orbits for planets and stars is bunk to me as we have plenty of cases of companion stars orbiting a principal star...and Jupiter definitely has even its own Jovian system in my argument's case. So as soon as we lose Pluto and Charon, Let's loose Jupiter while we are at it. Way too much emphasis is being placed on biased definitions leaving Earth MORE important than it is in the scheme of things...in the big leagues...now that are changing as we go...Fair is fair if one wants to re-invent (cultural) classifications older than the wheel. Mercury seems too small and inclined while we are at it - smaller than Mars. But we can see Mercury with the unaided eye, so I guess there is a lot of anti-Copernican prejudice in this still. As a matter of fact, lets loose all the other eight planets and just stick with Earth. That's where this is leading. The ancients would have a ball. Earth was never a planet (or "wanderer") for most of those centuries ! It was just Earth in the arrogant perfection of the Aristotelian system...so maybe there are no planets at all. Historically we seem to be at another Tychonic view of the heavens...and that DID NOT stand the test of time... Take the clue, esteemed IAU :), Tychonically yours, Doug ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
