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Plutos "demotion" from being a fully-fledged planet makes me wonder if it would have been politically feasible to start the New Horizons project if the redefini

by buyx 11y ago

Plutos "demotion" from being a fully-fledged planet makes me wonder if it would have been politically feasible to start the New Horizons project if the redefinition had happened a few years earlier. Still, I am pleasantly surprised by the excitement this mission is garnering.

gus_massa 11y ago
The Dawn mission went to Vesta and Ceres, so I guess you could get funds for a dwarf planet mission to Pluto and Charon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft) (They are closer, so probably the New Horizons mission is more expensive.)
mturmon 11y ago
It is well-known that the New Horizons PI, Alan Stern, had a strong distaste for the "demotion" of Pluto. (An extreme example, this interview: http://www.space.com/12710-pluto-defender-alan-stern-dwarf-planet-interview.html http://www.space.com/12710-pluto-defender-alan-stern-dwarf-p..., which is rather ... over the top in terms of its arguments.)
- yellowapple 11y ago
  I actually think his core argument - that a "planet" should be determined by its physical characteristics rather than where its orbit happens to lie - is pretty reasoned and grounded in logic. I'm on his side about the whole "clearing the neighborhood" criterion; it's totally arbitrary, and has less to do with the object itself than it does with where that object lives.
spuz 11y ago
I actually think Pluto's classification as a dwarf planet actually gives New Horizons more significance, not less. Pluto the planet was just a tiny very far away example of an object which we have already studied a great deal of. Pluto the dwarf planet instead is one of the largest and nearest example of an object we know very little and have never studied before (I.e. the kupier belt objects) and which can give us hopefully a lot more insight into how the solar system formed.

by buyx 11y ago

gus_massa 11y ago

The Dawn mission went to Vesta and Ceres, so I guess you could get funds for a dwarf planet mission to Pluto and Charon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft) (They are closer, so probably the New Horizons mission is more expensive.)

mturmon 11y ago

It is well-known that the New Horizons PI, Alan Stern, had a strong distaste for the "demotion" of Pluto. (An extreme example, this interview: http://www.space.com/12710-pluto-defender-alan-stern-dwarf-planet-interview.html http://www.space.com/12710-pluto-defender-alan-stern-dwarf-p..., which is rather ... over the top in terms of its arguments.)

yellowapple 11y ago
I actually think his core argument - that a "planet" should be determined by its physical characteristics rather than where its orbit happens to lie - is pretty reasoned and grounded in logic. I'm on his side about the whole "clearing the neighborhood" criterion; it's totally arbitrary, and has less to do with the object itself than it does with where that object lives.

spuz 11y ago

I actually think Pluto's classification as a dwarf planet actually gives New Horizons more significance, not less. Pluto the planet was just a tiny very far away example of an object which we have already studied a great deal of. Pluto the dwarf planet instead is one of the largest and nearest example of an object we know very little and have never studied before (I.e. the kupier belt objects) and which can give us hopefully a lot more insight into how the solar system formed.