this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
636 points (96.4% liked)

Mildly Interesting

17063 readers
4 users here now

This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (3 children)

When I was in school, Pluto was still a planet. And it still is in my heart!!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I've never understood this obsession. Odds are you've never heard of Ceres, but it was once called a planet. It's now considered a dwarf planet, like Pluto. Pluto is also less massive than Eris, so if you include Pluto you should also include Eris. None of these have cleared their orbit though.

I understand it's frequently just a joke, but it's always rubbed me weird because some people actually became science skeptics because "suddenly Pluto isn't a planet" or whatever. Really the reason is because the list would get really long if we included everything.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Ceres and Eris weren't talked about at all when i was in school. They were like a family relative that nobody talks about.

I understand the reason behind the change, its just fun to say that earth kicked them out of the league of planets.

"You heard about Pluto? Messed up, huh?"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Since you seem to be knowledgeable and I'd like to continue discussion, do you think there are "earth like" dwarf planets that could support life?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Probably not. At least not earth like. Planets have to be sufficiently large to maintain an atmosphere.

It may be possible for one like an ice moon to harbor life, but it needs something to generate heat and prevent the ocean from freezing solid.

I suppose there could also be a situation where the planet is sufficiently large to retain an atmosphere, but somehow hasn't cleared it's orbit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Earth like? No. They're too small to hold any reasonable atmosphere. That doesn't rule out life, but it's unlikely. They're also likely too small to have subsurface oceans or things like that without being tied to a planet and having strong tidal forces squishing it, in which case it'd be a moon not a dwarf planet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Pluto is still legally a planet in New Mexico and Illinois.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You've probably seen/heard this song already, but just in case. Pluto is Hot Shit.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EuRjmzz6qL0

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Ive heard other songs by him, not this one. Always great tunes.