On Oct 31, 11:45*pm, "Painius" wrote:
My dearest Mark,

"Mark Earnest" wrote in message...

...





I have been searching the Internet about the two newest planets
discovered, Sedna and Eris.

But the people writing about them seem too arrogant about them being
too small to be planets
to admit they are planets.

I can't even find a model or map of the Solar System with the orbits
of these two new planets
on them.

Since scientists started trying to re-classify certain planets into
being dwarf planets, seems we just
can't get anything straight about the Solar System anymore.

Thank goodness a few of the web sites still talk about the Nine
Planets, including Pluto!

So how many planets do we now have? *9? *!0? *11?

Maybe no one knows.

There are still many things we don't know about those
faraway objects to be able to clarify how to classify them.

Pluto was considered a planet when we were kids mainly
because 1) it was thought to be all alone out there, 2) it
had originally been thought to be a gas giant, and 3) it
was the only planet that had been discovered by an
American. *The movement to get Pluto reclassified away
from being a planet actually began shortly after it was
discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. *It didn't take long for
astronomers to realize that Pluto was a whole lot smaller
than originally thought.

Getting Pluto reclassified was tougher than they thought
it would be, though, and it wasn't really until other TNOs
were discovered beginning in 1992 that the movement to
reclassify Pluto took on some momentum. *Mark, it's just
a matter of wanting to be as precise as possible when it
comes to definitions, that's all. *It's not easy to accept
change when it's needed. *Man up !

Officially, there are eight planets in the Solar system. *As
you might remember, i still consider there to be nine...

Mercury
* * * Venus
* * * * * * Earth
* * * * * * * * * Selene
* * * * * * * * * * * *Mars
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * Jupiter
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Saturn
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Uranus
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Neptune

Selene (the Moon) is a full-fledged planet in its own right...

* *http://selene.painellsworth.net

Happy days *and*...
* *Starry, starry nights !

--
Indelibly yours,
Paine Ellsworth

PS - "To live life at risk you've got to jump off cliffs all
* * * * the time and build your wings on the way down."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Ray Bradbury

PPS -http://astro.painellsworth.net!
* * * * * *http://www.secretsgolden.com!
* * * * * * * * * *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Paine_Ellsworth!

Several other moons of our solar system and some of that pesky Oort
cloud stuff is captured. Still no telling how old Venus is, or where
its moon went.

~ BG