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Pluto was only discovered in the 1930s. The only cultural heritage of Pluto as a ‘planet’ is a few decades of science schoolbooks, but going by these comments

by lloda 26d ago

Pluto was only discovered in the 1930s. The only cultural heritage of Pluto as a ‘planet’ is a few decades of science schoolbooks, but going by these comments you'd think it's been in the same list as Jupiter since the Babylonians.

nephihaha 26d ago
Uranus and Neptune don't have a long human heritage either. Neither appears to have been known to the Babylonians.
- p-e-w 26d ago
  Uranus has been observed since antiquity, but wasn’t recognized as a planet.
  - nephihaha 26d ago
    Herschel put Uranus on the map, so to speak. It is barely visible and never played a large part in ancient astrology/astronomy (I use both terms here as they were not separate at the time.)
DSMan195276 26d ago
Yeah apparently people are getting harassed on the regular about Pluto, I'm a little confused.
odyssey7 26d ago
Unfortunately this is both a false dichotomy fallacy and an appeal to extremes. 1. Yes, there are culturally significant things that have happened since the 1930s, including the discovery of Pluto and its designation as being a planet. In fact, in 2006 -- far more recently -- a group of people got together -- known as the IAU -- and they also performed a cultural act amongst themselves when they decided to stop calling Pluto a planet, undertaking a social process ("voting") in adopting criteria for doing so. 2. If you would rather define a planet as a wandering star that's visible to unaided humans in the night sky, I'd respect that, and I kind of like the idea. It's somewhat romantic, and it avoids the myriad issues that the article here discusses that have caused the 2006 IAU definition to start to smell bad. However, it's really none of my business. The problem comes up when you police what other people call things, not when you decide to subscribe to the IAU of your own volition.
Aeolun 26d ago
Easy to say when you didn't grow up counting Pluto as a planet. I still feel a bit depressed every time I tell my son "And there's... 8 planets in the solar system." Because apparently sometimes between the moment I left elementary school and he went there, some dudes decided that Pluto didn't qualify as a planet after all.
- expedition32 26d ago
  Well the definition of science is that it can change when new data is found- that's why it is not a religion. Our understanding of the universe is after all quite rudimentary. How many centuries did people fantasise about forests on Venus?

by lloda 26d ago

nephihaha 26d ago

Uranus and Neptune don't have a long human heritage either. Neither appears to have been known to the Babylonians.

p-e-w 26d ago
Uranus has been observed since antiquity, but wasn’t recognized as a planet.
- nephihaha 26d ago
  Herschel put Uranus on the map, so to speak. It is barely visible and never played a large part in ancient astrology/astronomy (I use both terms here as they were not separate at the time.)

DSMan195276 26d ago

Yeah apparently people are getting harassed on the regular about Pluto, I'm a little confused.

odyssey7 26d ago

Unfortunately this is both a false dichotomy fallacy and an appeal to extremes. 1. Yes, there are culturally significant things that have happened since the 1930s, including the discovery of Pluto and its designation as being a planet. In fact, in 2006 -- far more recently -- a group of people got together -- known as the IAU -- and they also performed a cultural act amongst themselves when they decided to stop calling Pluto a planet, undertaking a social process ("voting") in adopting criteria for doing so. 2. If you would rather define a planet as a wandering star that's visible to unaided humans in the night sky, I'd respect that, and I kind of like the idea. It's somewhat romantic, and it avoids the myriad issues that the article here discusses that have caused the 2006 IAU definition to start to smell bad. However, it's really none of my business. The problem comes up when you police what other people call things, not when you decide to subscribe to the IAU of your own volition.

Aeolun 26d ago

Easy to say when you didn't grow up counting Pluto as a planet. I still feel a bit depressed every time I tell my son "And there's... 8 planets in the solar system." Because apparently sometimes between the moment I left elementary school and he went there, some dudes decided that Pluto didn't qualify as a planet after all.

expedition32 26d ago
Well the definition of science is that it can change when new data is found- that's why it is not a religion. Our understanding of the universe is after all quite rudimentary. How many centuries did people fantasise about forests on Venus?