August 16, 2006
12 Planets
Back in my day, we only had NINE PLANETS! .... and that's how we liked it!
- Astronomers, hold on to your telescopes.
The solar system has 12 planets, not nine.
That's the earthshaking conclusion of an influential international committee, which on Wednesday will recommend a new definition of what qualifies as a planet.
The change is necessary, experts say, because of discoveries in the past decade that have revealed a glut of Pluto-sized bodies beyond the orbit of Pluto - until now considered the furthest planet from the sun.
Kids today, with their iPods and Internet. They don't know what it was like out in the cold, watching Uranus through binoculars in the snow...
Posted by: jk at August 16, 2006 12:35 PMBarefoot and shivering is the only way astronomy should be performed.
Posted by: AlexC at August 16, 2006 1:24 PMThese guys are bozos. Most people can name 3 planets TOTAL. Earth, Mars and Saturn. And that is because Saturn is a car and Mars Needs Women.
Posted by: mdmhvonpa at August 16, 2006 2:24 PMOn a related note, I heard on the radio the other morning that some large percentage of Americans can name the planet that Superman is from while only a much smaller percentage can name the planet closest to the sun in our own solar system.
Are they trying to make it even more difficult on our poor ignorant populace? It must be a Karl Rove plot to damage the egos of minority students.
Posted by: dagny at August 16, 2006 5:07 PMName the planets after famous civil rights leaders! All the children will know the orbital period and distance to the sun of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Planet Al Sharpton!
(The sound you hear is jk's last hope of holding electoral office glugging down the toilet of Google cache...)
Posted by: jk at August 16, 2006 6:21 PM | What do you think? [5]