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Comment by nubinetwork | Hacker News Reader

Pluto is a planet ( /s but not really)

Pluto should have had some grand-father clause. Keep it a planet for historical sake, but with an asterisk. So we wouldn't keep arguing about the new objects that are same size or bigger, yes, Pluto isn't a planet. But lets just go ahead and acknowledge that we are going to call Pluto a planet in 'name-only' for the memories.

That’s what the "dwarf planet" term is.

they prefer the term "planets with dwarfism"

Colloquial language doesn't have to follow scientific language. No facts about the physical universe changed with the name change. We can just keep calling Pluto the ninth planet, which lets the hypothesized distant planet be "Planet X" which is way the hell cooler than "planet 9". There's no need for any permission to do this.

Also the IAU only has as much authority to define "planet" as you give it, and there's not much reason to give it any, especially when the geologists make so much more sense.

NASA still has a page where that's the primary term: https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/planet-x/

That’s only in the context of ‘x’ being unknown. They’re still referring to it as ‘planet nine’ in the article.

> Batygin and Brown nicknamed their predicted object "Planet Nine," but the actual naming rights of an object go to the person who actually discovers it. The name used during previous hunts for the long suspected giant, undiscovered object beyond Neptune is "Planet X."

It's the same thing. These researchers just chose a different name. And the article does use "planet X" more than "planet 9"/"planet nine".

Fine, but then so is Eris

Ceres to beltalowda!

Especially when you consider that whatever planet is found won’t have cleared its orbital path (it’s in the Kuiper Belt) and so wouldn’t be Planet 9 by the IAU’s ridiculous definition. The headline is doubly wrong.

True, but people who make sense and people who have effective PR machines are not always the same.

Wasn't this a Rick and Morty episode?

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