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Pluto has been demoted to non-planet status in a vote involving 424 professional astronomers who remained for the last day of a meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague. The demotion of Pluto was due to the new definition of the world ‘planet’ which states - in layman’s terms - that “anything round, orbiting the sun, is not a satellite of another body, and has enough capacity to clear it’s vicinity of other space objects” is a planet. On the other hand, the IAU also defined the new term “dwarf planet” which states that “anything round, orbiting the sun, is not a satellite of another body, BUT DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH CAPACITY TO CLEAR IT’S VICINITY” should be called a dwarf planet. Pluto fits the “dwarf planet” definition but not the planet definition.

Less planets but more dwarf planets

According to the new definition of the world planet, we now only have Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune as planets. But we have new names to keep in mind as well and they are the dwarf planets. For now, the official dwarf planets are Ceres which is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Pluto, and 2003 UB313 or Xena which is far beyond pluto. It is not known whether Pluto’s “moon” Charon will also be called a dwarf planet. The confusion with Charon arises from the fact that it doesn’t really orbit Pluto like a satellite would do. Rather, Pluto and Charon orbits a common center of gravity in a merry-go-round like pattern.

Here is the new official definition of planet, as passed on 24 August 2006:

A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

A dwarf planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.

Hmmm…

What do I think about this? Well, I think the decision to demote Pluto is a good step towards scientific clarity of what a planet really is. However, astronomers think that the present definition of planet is a bit off-course when it said that a planet should be able to clear its vicinity of other space objects. Why? Because Earth has asteroids labeled as Near Earth Objects (NEO), Mars also has its share of asteroids in its vicinity. Jupiter has its Trojan asteroids which actually cross the orbit of Jupiter in a step-lock manner. In other words, these “planets” were not really able to clear their vicinity of other space objects. In fact, these planets are even in danger of getting hit by these asteroids. Astronomers on Earth for example monitor the NEO’s regularly checking which of them may hit us.

Anyway…

Anyway… I think it’s still a good idea to take a step towards clarifying what is and what’s not. It is a turmoil at start but we will be smooth sailing soon.

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After the votes have been cast on August 24 by the members of the International Astronomical Union, the Solar System will no longer have 9 planets.  It’s either 8 or 12.  The discussion on what the definition of the word ‘planet’ is has been going on for quite some time now and I’m personally glad to know that we will finally have some answers by the 24th of August 2006.

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If you think that the universe is big then I wish to tell you that it might be even bigger.  Recent studies might prove that the universe is 15% bigger than what scientists thought so back in 2003.  Currently, the accepted age of the universe is 13.7 Billion years old and is about 156 Billion light-years wide.  One light-year is the distance that light would travel in one year which is about 9,460,528,404,879 kilometers.  Ok so multiple 9,460,528,404,879 by 156,000,000,000 and you will get an idea of how big the universe is.

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Electronics has been the heart of modern day technology. Every modern machine has some electronic part in it - one way or another. Computers, cellphones, TVs, radios, MP3 Players, Airconditioners, Cars, Ships, Airliners, rockets, and even the Space Shuttle. So I guess it would be wise to get info from some Electronic Engineering News Digest. eeDigest does just that. I visit them regularly and I even have them bookmarked. They also have RSS feeds and that’s pretty cool.

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Bad breath can be caused by a lot of different things.  Mostly, it is the result of bad hygiene.  In other cases, bad breathe can be a symptom of a bigger health problem.

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Wine is said to be good for the health and I have to agree to that. A glass of wine after dinner helps digest the food - especially during the night when human metabolism is low. I heard that it is recommend to drink wine after eating high-protein meals. Even cheap wine will do. But remember, don’t get drunk - that’s another story.

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Were you able to watch Rocketeer???  Oh my, it was a great movie and I love it so much that the idea of flying using a rocketpack or jetpack has never left my mind.  However, no technology to date has been proven either useful or safe enough to make rocketpacks and jetpacks practical for the common public.

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I love science and I almost instantly get a rush when I hear of some new cool invention. Any invention, whether they be simple or complex really excite me. In fact, I visit tech related websites ever so often just to keep myself updated about what’s the latest in technology - software, hardware, biotechnology, space, etc. Then I thought, what if I have some new invention, what would be the next step for me to take?

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