Weighing in on the debate...

[arib]

So, based on the latest meeting of the IAU, Pluto's status as a planet has been preserved. This debate also kicked off a new class of planets known as plutons. Known plutons in our solar system are currently Ceres (the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, comprising fully one-third of all of the belt's mass. Ceres was considered a planet in its' own right until the 1880s or so) Pluto, Charon (Pluto's largest "moon" the two are tidally locked and orbit a common point. This suggests that they comprise a two-planet system with two moons, named Hydra and Nix, that were discovered fairly recently) and 2003 UB313, colloquially known as "Xena." (Gawd, I hope they give it another name, Xena strikes me as too dated by pop culture, and 2003-UB313 sounds like a gate-address from Stargate).

This brings the number of planets of one kind or another in our system up to 12, and completely ruins the "My Very Excellent Mother" mnemonic.

Unless you change it to:

"My very excellent mother conveniently just served us nine purple cherries 2003-UB313."

Obviously, that last bit needs some work.

I'm proud to support mabfan's Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet (or SP3), the Society's webpage can be found at http://www.plutoisaplanet.org

So, what's your take?

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

"My very elegant mother can just sit upon nine pin-cushion xylophones."

I like "pin-cushion" for Pluto and Charon, since they're a binary planet, so it's one word.

[elul-3.livejournal.com]

You know, the mnemonic thing is the first thing I thought of when I heard the debate was (re)surfacing.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

I'm just bewildered. Hey guys, map <> territory! Whether Pluto is a planet or not has zero real world effect.
And for whatever reason, I find that in order to remember the darn mnemomic I have to write out the first letters of each planet's name (beause I have has the list memorized since second grade) and effectively play hangman.

If they decide Pluto is not a planet, they should simultaneously rename it Tigana.

[arib.livejournal.com]

Why Tigana?

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Short explanation: So I don't have to hear it.

Longer Explanation: The more I try to explain it the clearer it becomes it was a stupid comment. Read the book Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay and you can figure out what I am trying to say.