Sunday, March 6, 2011

Poor Pluto

Something that has been pressing on my heart lately is how different society is changing. It has made me realize that my children will be growing up in a completely different world (that is when I have children in the next 10 years). I have already decided to save all of my favorite movies while growing up so that I can share them with my children, as well as some of the TV shows that I grew up with. I want to be able to share the culture I grew up in with my children because it was so very enjoyable. I also am worried with the direction TV shows and movies are going it, and would like to have some costiveness in my children’s lives.
I was also thinking about how many things have changed. When I work with campers during the summer we talk about certain things, and I have come to discover many kids, ever older than ten, have absolutely no idea who the Backstreet boys, or N-Sync are. I feel like when I was growing up I still knew all the different music my parents listened to, as well as my siblings. I was still in tune with the different cultural eras before mine, but in today’s society that has definitely changed.
What truly makes me sad is the fact already kids are learning the solar system without Pluto. I believe that is absolutely ridiculous. My friends and I had a huge discussion about why they even took Pluto out of our solar system list of planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (Dwarf Planet).  It is truly ridiculous in my opinion. Apparently “the IAU has changed the definition of "planet" so that Pluto no longer qualifies. There are now officially only eight planets in our solar system. Of course this change in terminology does not affect what's actually out there.”[1]
The resolution The decision establishes three main categories of objects in our solar system.
  • Planets: The eight worlds starting with Mercury and moving out to Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
  • Dwarf planets: Pluto and any other round object that "has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite."
  • Small solar system bodies: All other objects orbiting the sun.
Pluto and its moon Charon, which would both have been planets under the initial definition proposed Aug. 16, now get demoted because they are part of a sea of other objects that occupy the same region of space. Earth and the other eight large planets have, on the other hand, cleared broad swaths of space of any other large objects. [2]

Why do scientists have to meddle so much?



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