Smallest Planet

[Ogaden]

It's fucking retarded the classification system.

Compared to the gas giants all the inner planets are dwarf planets

[Buck Turgidson]

It's fucking retarded the classification system.

Compared to the gas giants all the inner planets are dwarf planets

Well, it beats the original single classification for everything, which was "things in the sky".

I would be most willing, seriously, to approach the AU on behalf of the RIA with a formal proposal of a new classification system, as long as it does not back-peddle on the 2006 Pluto ruling.

Any thoughts?  There seems to be a lot of pent-up frustration on this matter...

[Ogaden]

Well we always assumed that most star systems would be like ours, but now that we've discovered a lot of star systems, the solar system is the way it is because of dumb luck, basically.

Virtually every planet is completely unique.  There are tiny gas giants, gigantic rocky planets, comets the size of Jupiter etc.

Uranus for instance is essentially a comet that's 17 times the size of Earth.  Jupiter is essentially a star that is too small for thermonuclear-triggering pressures to result.

We either need a much more complicated classification system or just treat every stellar satellite as a distinct entity.

[Buck Turgidson]

Well, the basis of science is to look for repetition in nature.  Treating each planet like a unique occurrence would be like treating each person you meet like an individual...  That said, perhaps scientists should not be in charge of this stuff.  Maybe it should be artists, but I think they are the worst when it comes to categorizing their own work.

How's this - currentlywe measure astronomical distance in Astronomical Units - the distance between the Earth and the Sun.  So, I guess Galileo did not win completely.  That being the case, how about classifying stars in terms of size, relative to the Sun, and planets relative to the Earth? 

This way each planet would be unique, with a baseline in terms we understand concretely.