By
Abby Walker
February 21, 2007
Think back to the days of playing tag on the playground and comparing flavors of Capri Sun at lunch. Remember those elementary school lessons on the solar system and creating off-scale mobiles and models of the planets, where Pluto was often only half the size of Earth?
That project became slightly easier on Aug. 24, 2006, when the International Astronomical Union declared Pluto a dwarf planet and shrunk the number of planets in our solar system down to eight.
That same day, Steven Klimczak, a Texas high school senior, created "When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was a Planet." He had been looking for an idea that would spawn a popular group but couldn't think of a good enough idea.
"One day in class someone told me that Pluto was no longer a planet," Klimczak said. "I have always been interested in space and the planets and I thought that this would be good idea for a group."
However, it was more than a good idea. The group rapidly grew to become the second-largest group in Facebook history. Within three weeks, 50,000 people had joined. Two weeks later, there were 500,000 members. Currently, more than 752,000 people are in the group.
Klimczak's group now fluctuates between the third and fourth largest Facebook group; it competes with "good cause" groups, such as those supporting breast cancer research. He was surprised at the rapid growth of the group but understands how it happened.
"When I first made it and saw that people thought it was cute or funny, I asked them to invite their friends," he said. "When you do the math and each one of those people is adding 200 friends, it adds up quickly."
UW senior Colin Thomas joined the group the same week that the Pluto announcement was made. He noticed in the news feed that several of his friends had joined.
"I remembered being taught my whole life that there were nine planets in the solar system," said Thomas, who is pleased at the number of Pluto supporters. "The way the whole Pluto issue was handled just didn't feel right considering other astronomical issues of the day, such as the possible addition of Sedna to the list of planets."
Klimczak found that as the group grew larger, it began to pop up under the related group category on other group pages, which created free advertising.
"Normally this type of advertising costs people thousands of dollars," Klimczak said. "The chance is that my group was advertised in that space 20 million times."
The group has drawn attention even outside of the Facebook world. Klimczak has been interviewed by NASA, which sought his opinion on the Pluto situation, as well as being a contributor to two Facebook articles by the New York Times. Also, the group has been referenced in hundreds of Internet articles.
He seized the opportunity to turn the popularity of the group into a business venture and began selling T-shirts in December through a friend's Web page. He is happy with its progress and hopes to introduce new designs soon.
Although the group has grown beyond the imaginable, it was all started by a simple, nostalgic idea to recognize a generation that grew up with nine planets.
Klimczak summarized: "Any kid that learned that Pluto was a planet can look at a sibling or elementary school child and tell them that, 'when I was your age, Pluto was a planet.'"
Reach reporter Abby Walker at features@thedaily.washington.edu.
278 Comments
#201 vergan_@hotmail.com
on April 17, 2008 at 6:52 a.m.(Istanbul, Turkey | Unverified Name)
yourr spek turkıs meraba...
#202 Aussie Beth
on April 21, 2008 at 8:08 a.m.(Sydney, Australia | Unverified Name)
hey
i'm not that old but i grew up learning that pluto was a planet - i think i even did an assignment on it in 5th class. however i have a baby cousin who will most likely grow up learning that the solar system only contains 8 planets... poor girl.
and going to back to the issue of 'do we have a right to deplanetise pluto?' - well kinda yeah. language is a social tool - it was developed specifically to enable us to communicate our impressions of the world (and universe) around us. therefore if we agree that our society no longer considers pluto a planet by criteria that we have set then it isn't. that said - this discussion group proves that as a linguistic community we have not agreed that pluto is not a planet - only a few of us have therefore it is not incontrivertible fact (which doesn't exist anyway), only reality as percieved by the few who decided that pluto is no longer a planet, who are clearly idiots.
wow i actually learned something from my linguistics class
#203 I'm So Dumb
on May 1, 2008 at 10:08 a.m.(Miami, FL | Unverified Name)
Wow... So I thought all this time we were talking about Pluto the Dog. Yeah, the one who walks around Disneyworld and Disneyland...
I guess being a Heat Dancer has its perks :S
#204 john2000
on May 9, 2008 at 12:34 p.m.(Cairo, Egypt | Unverified Name)
opjaw jhji jh.kl;o98687
#205 hi
on May 13, 2008 at 5:57 p.m.( | Unverified Name)
it sucks
#206 C.
on May 17, 2008 at 4:58 p.m.(Valencia, Spain | Unverified Name)
They can say whatever they want, but for me, now and ever, PLUTO IS A PLANET!!! :)
#207 wow
on May 23, 2008 at 11:35 a.m.(London, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
wahay this is a waste of a serious discussion i never knew pluto wasn't a planet until now but seriously why talk about it so much its JUST A PLANET... um about 500 million miles away... like i care... i mean yeah u can support the cause for a laugh but sum ppl here are takin it WAYYYYYYYY too far... :S
#208 lool
on May 23, 2008 at 11:39 a.m.(London, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
yh ur rite
#209 Don Kim
on May 23, 2008 at 3:56 p.m.(Centerport, NY | Unverified Name)
DON KIM WILL RULE ALL
#210 wjackson
on May 31, 2008 at 3:46 p.m.(Puyallup, WA | Unverified Name)
I though Pluto was Mickey's Dog?
#211 Zack
on June 1, 2008 at 6:15 a.m.(New Lebanon, NY | Unverified Name)
When i was a kid i was taught "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas."
i guess now my excellent mother has run out of pizzas...
#212 Alicia
on June 1, 2008 at 7:46 p.m.(Hamburg, NJ | Unverified Name)
a) I agree with Zack.
b) Pluto will always have a special place in my heart.
#213 Claire F.
on July 8, 2008 at 12:42 p.m.(Keego Harbor, MI)
Hi we think we have a cool facebook group. It's kinda weird and we only have 13 members. The name is 'Nisha and Claire's Awesome People Group' we send daily messages to all our members they are sent to bring lots of laughs to our members here is the one we sent today: this is our daily message to the members of our group. If you have a birthday you should tell us when it is so we can wish you happy birthday okay. also hi. so to our new members welcome don't forget to read our events and not attend any of them. You can't attend because they take place of the middle of the street and inside katia. Also we need more wall posts okay and more members.
XOXO,
Claire and Nisha
so we hope you think our group is fun
XOXO,
Claire and Nisha
#214 Michelle S.
on September 2, 2008 at 8:48 a.m.(Sault Sainte Marie, Canada)
bonjourno.....
have you been here long ???
since the beginning of time ??
I guess we are all just Dust in the Wind
and maybe I am older than Dirt !!!!
LOL
LOL
LOL
#215 Bass D.
on September 19, 2008 at 7:46 p.m.(Denver, CO)
pluto rocks i am from pluto. (only close friends understand)
#216 Kristen K.
on September 21, 2008 at 10:20 p.m.(Murray, KY)
So i had to take a public speaking class in college and one of the speeches was supposed to be a eulogy, so i thought of my favorite planet being down sized as not a planet, so here it is!!
A Eulogy to Pluto
We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of our beloved friend and planet, Pluto.
He will not be put in textbooks anymore. He will not be considered part of the nine planets of our solar system.
Pluto was always the ninth planet from the sun. He was a very cold planet who spent his life out in the middle of nowhere but stayed here on earth in many of our hearts and will continue to for a long time.
Are we going to have to make up new songs about our now eight plants? What is going to happen to the old songs, rhymes and poems students and teachers have made up to help remember the nine planets which included Pluto?
Pluto was discovered in 1930, by a man named Clyde Tombaugh, but after 76 years of being considered a planet, the International Astronomical Union or the IAU has come to some sort of agreement on August 24th, 2006 that the smallest planet in our solar system Pluto, has been recategorized as no such planet.
Our fateful planet has left us only memories of what he was and what he was to become because of the IAU he is no longer being considered a planet.
And so we shall all bid our farewells to our beloved friend and planet, Pluto.
Thank You.
#217 Joanne W.
on October 23, 2008 at 4:14 p.m.(London, United Kingdom)
To comment on the following:
"So... I was curious... how do you think they're going to explain Roman mythology? It's like... the major gods are named after planets and then BAM "Ma, where tf did 'Pluto' come from????" I don't know. That was just an amusing thought to me."
I assume irony? I think you were being ironic but just to clarify: The planets were named after Roman gods, not vice versa. With those discovered earlier there is some pattern to it, but later it becomes a bit arbitary (hmm, which god hasn't been used yet?) Could just have easily been...well..Proserpina... as Pluto
#218 Carey
on October 30, 2008 at 8:16 a.m.(Palo Alto, CA | Unverified Name)
I love how everyone is arguing about this. Does this affect your life? Do you wake up every morning and say "oh no, there are only 8 planets now"? Why is everyone so up-in-arms about this? Its a hunk of rock floating in space. The guys at the IAU have decided that the aforementioned rock is not a planet anymore and that's that. Why should we care? Granted, i think it was a stupid move because countless textbooks now have to be revised and republished, but other than that, whats the problem?
#219 Tristan P.
on November 2, 2008 at 2:09 p.m.(Guelph, Canada)
poor pluto, it was my favorite planet,
now what is it, my favorite ball of frozen gas?
correct me if im wrong
#220 Carey
on November 3, 2008 at 7:06 a.m.(Hanover Park, IL | Unverified Name)
It's now a dwarf planet
#221 RoyArtelo
on November 8, 2008 at 8:02 p.m.(None, Saudi Arabia | Unverified Name)
Do you think that Obama is going to win because the Republicans have such a bad candidate?
Why did John McCain make his final argument against Obama... coal?
That's his closing argument? William Ayers, Rev. Wright, spreading the wealth, Born Alive, meeting dictators without preconditions, etc. all have to take a back seat so that McCain can go to Colorado and New Mexico to talk about coal? Does this more or less explain why he's going to get his clock cleaned Tuesday?
#222 Ro
on November 9, 2008 at 6:28 p.m.(Abingdon, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets - not any more it doesn't :-(
#223 Austin B.
on November 11, 2008 at 5:52 a.m.(Kalamazoo, MI)
Ok now here is what I don't understand. We have humans who aren't as "big" as us. And yet we don't exclude any of them from society. Just like they are people too, I say Pluto is still a planet as well. Just because Pluto isn't as enormous as most planets doesn't mean it should be cast out of the chain of planets. I believe Pluto is a planet because that is what I was taught. And I wont agree with anyone who says its not. Pluto is a planet and thats the way it should be seen when people talk about it.
Hang in there Pluto. Some day someone will have common sense and bring you back to us.
#224 kelly
on November 11, 2008 at 10:27 p.m.(Los Angeles, CA | Unverified Name)
Pluto is still there...therefor still a planet. once they remove the planet they can say it is no longer
#225 ss
on November 13, 2008 at 5:47 a.m.(Doha, Qatar | Unverified Name)
hahahhahahah u guys are hilllarioussssssssssss... those comments that i did't read are justttttttt hillarioussssssss... hhahahhahahha
#226 JASMINE
on November 23, 2008 at 8:14 p.m.(Toronto, Canada | Unverified Name)
WE GIVING AWAY LOTS OF GIFTS N PRIZES IN OUR $2 RAFFLE
SEND INVITES TO UR FRIENDS THANK YOU.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid...
#227 Morshed rana
on November 26, 2008 at 8:54 a.m.(Dhaka, Bangladesh | Unverified Name)
Pluto is a big planet.
#228 elizabeth
on November 30, 2008 at 7:53 p.m.(Saint Louis, MO | Unverified Name)
I <3 Pluto! Who cares if someone labels you as a planet or not? You're still Pluto, my favorite planet.
#229 Andrea C.
on December 2, 2008 at 3:59 p.m.(Houston, TX | Unverified Name)
My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets. !!! i learned THAT in elementary!"Nine"!! uh, i think we are missing a planet, IAU! idiots. this is so sad... i babysitt a kid of about 6 yrs old who is learning the planets, and he told me this: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos. THAT made me so mad! when i asked him about Pluto he said: "who? Mickey's doggy?". he wasn't taught about the ninth planet's history! that made me madder. ....poor Pluto... ~i'm a member of the Facebook group, and loving it~
#230 Pickett
on December 8, 2008 at 12:42 p.m.(Rolla, MO | Unverified Name)
It's a catchy phrase, but the problem is:
How long till we say, "When I was your age Pluto was a planet," and they respond, "What's Pluto?" (=
#231 scott
on December 17, 2008 at 7:01 p.m.(Adel, IA | Unverified Name)
good old Pluto...what more is there that one can say?
#232 Laurel K.
on December 19, 2008 at 9:48 p.m.(New York, NY | Unverified Name)
To Carey: Maybe people have a problem with the idea that "the guys at the IAU have decided..." and decreed something by fiat that makes no linguistic or scientific sense. Maybe people who love astronomy want to see knowledge of the planet Pluto be taught to future generations. And maybe they realize that it wasn't the IAU but four percent of that group, most of whom are not even planetary scientists, who made this ridiculous decision. As to how does this affect people's lives, let me answer with another question: how do Britney Spears or NASCAR affect people's lives? Yet people follow both avidly. I find exotic planets more interesting than living vicariously through a so-called celebrity or overpaid athlete.
Beyond the fact that this decision may very well be overturned or rejected by a good number of astronomers, we can do our part by teaching the kids we know about Pluto to make sure they never get to the point of asking "What's Pluto." I've been teaching my now five-year-old nephew about the planets for two years, and I'm making sure he knows Pluto is a planet. He even knows some people dispute that, but that in our family, we view Pluto as a planet. He actually corrected a kid who said there are only eight planets! I've taught him about exoplanets too. There are plenty of books and toys that continue to include Pluto. We need to become the educators here! Also, many teachers share the view that Pluto is a planet and continue to teach it as such, even if they note there is an ongoing controversy.
#233 Ziggy
on December 24, 2008 at 3:36 p.m.(Savannah, GA | Unverified Name)
Pluto has not changed at all. The only thing that has changed is our conception.
#234 Bryce Davis
on December 27, 2008 at 1:59 p.m.(Des Plaines, IL | Unverified Name)
When I was your' age Pluto was not only a planet, but was inhabited.
#235 Lisa
on December 28, 2008 at 1:44 a.m.(Englewood, CO | Unverified Name)
My Very Educated Mother Just Served us Nine Pizza-pies. I went to teach my kids that song and my daughter says mom that song isnt right! I wanted to cry.
#236 Anita
on December 28, 2008 at 10:39 a.m.(Bergenfield, NJ | Unverified Name)
I grew up with "My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas/pies." Now it has to be "My very educated mother just served us nachos."
R.i.P. Pluto =[
#237 osama
on December 29, 2008 at 4:10 a.m.(Cairo, Egypt | Unverified Name)
gy
#238 Beverley & Vance Wensel
on December 29, 2008 at 5:02 p.m.(Moose Jaw, Canada | Unverified Name)
.....this is just a FUN thing :)
#239 Kathy
on December 29, 2008 at 10:37 p.m.(Portland, OR | Unverified Name)
When I was younger we would say, "My very excited mother just served us nine pizzas" Now it's like My very excited mother just served us noodles".... It's not as fun! Sigh. It's sad.
#240 adam
on December 30, 2008 at 10:44 a.m.(Tulsa, OK | Unverified Name)
just becuse science says its not a planet doesnt make it true if science said you were not a human would u not be human no u would still be a human so pluto is still a planet to me
#241 Helen
on January 6, 2009 at 6:53 a.m.(Campodarsego, Italy | Unverified Name)
What?! Why putting up such a fight? Why are some people so angry about a simple change in a classification? It looks like Pluto's a dear friend of yours, or your favourite football or baseball team! O_o' IMHO it's quite funny! It's like when people living before Galileo where thaught that Earth was flat...science continuously goes on, there's nothing rude or arrogant in that! no-one is trying to crush your (our) childhood memories nor calling you (us) stupid, just because you (we) were thaught that Pluto was a regular planet and now they have found that it's a different thing...
#242 Lindsay
on January 6, 2009 at 3:40 p.m.(Snellville, GA | Unverified Name)
I Salute you pluto you lived only 76 years.
#243 Mike
on January 8, 2009 at 2:59 p.m.(Burnley, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
Helen, I can see your point on that, but what you say is not quite the whole picture. They didn't 'find' that it was a different thing, what they did in reality was to set arbitrary classifications for what constituted a planet ..... with the full knowledge that Pluto did not fall within them ..... so rather than 'find' or 'discover' the information, they simply decided that their opinion was more valid than anyone elses (no proof, no evidence, just their say so).
And while equating the Pluto downgrading with the ancient Flat Earth theory may at first seem quite valid, it actually isn't ...... the Earths surface did not change from flat to curved simply because a scientist said it was so, they simply proved that the public perception was wrong.
We didn't think Pluto was a planet, Pluto WAS a planet ..... and the way they should have dealt with it was to classify planets using what information we had (the whole 9 planets). Just think, how many schools had to spend money which they can scarcely afford simply to update textbooks because a group of scientists had decided to reclassify something?
#244 Amy
on January 8, 2009 at 6:17 p.m.(Denver, CO | Unverified Name)
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nuts
#245 Haya
on January 9, 2009 at 9:08 a.m.(Palo Alto, CA | Unverified Name)
Dan #167, great idea!! I'm following your example of how to spend my time instead. Instead of wishing for Pluto to be back, I'm going to go through all the Facebook groups I can, and see whom I can tell off for spending their time unconstructively, and tell them to get a life. Wow, I found somebody to start with...You!! and now since I'm following your example, me too!! (This is great fun, Dan, thanks for showing me the way!! Wish my mind was up to processing all the self-referentiality here, but since it isn't, I think I might just have to go back to other trivial pursuits (Godel, help!!)
#246 Michael
on January 11, 2009 at 10:08 p.m.(Snohomish, WA | Unverified Name)
dude thats guy shit because pluto is a planet, so people should just shut the tits up i will teach my kids that pluto is a planet fuck the retards who think its not
#247 Shit
on January 11, 2009 at 10:10 p.m.(Snohomish, WA | Unverified Name)
yes i do enjoy how you swear, but you must calm down, hey are you michael washington? btw
#248 Up my ass
on January 11, 2009 at 10:14 p.m.(Snohomish, WA | Unverified Name)
haha
#249 Leticia N.
on January 12, 2009 at 9:28 a.m.(Charleston, SC)
When I was your age Pluto was a planet and knowing it felt right. Pluto is also a word that doesn't translation to other languages. You call Pluto, Pluto in Spanish as well. What does that mean? That in spite of all our imagined differences we share the universal pain of having lost that notion: Pluto used to be a planet, and we were damn proud of knowing its name.
#250 Bisma H.
on January 13, 2009 at 11:42 p.m.(Islamabad, Pakistan)
back when i heard for the first time that pluto is no more a planet i so didnt like the news.coz i remember i always pictured pluto as this cute little far away planet, my favourite from the lot :) my friends thought its crazy that im getting upset abt the news!..then one day i came across this group on facebook and it felt good to see im not the only one getting upset :) this group gave me a chance to show my affiliation with pluto! i invited all my friends to join it and noticed that yes! there r many who cared about pluto the way i did :P
#251 Amy R.
on January 15, 2009 at 1:10 p.m.(Atlanta, GA)
I was in 8th grade when Pluto was demoted. This year, when I looked in my agenda, and noticed Pluto's absence, I drew it in and wrote all over the page "I miss PLUTO!" and "I LOVE PLUTO!" wherever Pluto should be.
#252 GEORGE
on January 17, 2009 at 2:33 a.m.(Medunsa, South Africa | Unverified Name)
I like to think of pluto as the little kid of the solar system. as a kid, i was the tiniest kid in my class and it kinda felt good to know that theres a planet that "feels the same way" lol. anyway, thanks to Steven Klimczak pluto will not be forgotten, WAY TO GO STEVE!!
#253 Andrew Lindsay
on January 17, 2009 at 8:54 a.m.(Western Springs, IL | Unverified Name)
Maybe all the Gas Giants should be considered something else too then? Make the rule that a planet must have a solid surface under less that 100 miles of atmosphere. Then where would we be? Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, hmmmmm Pluto!
#254 ramzee irzeqat
on January 22, 2009 at noon(Nablus, Palestinian Territory | Unverified Name)
تحية الى جميع شباب تفوح في العالم خاصه الى اخي لؤي في الجزائر ومهند في المانيا ورائدفي اليمن وخالد في البوسنه وايمن في مصر ومجدي في تركيا ولاننسا طبعا الاخ العزيز غانم اخوك رمزي
#255 Monica
on January 24, 2009 at 7:40 a.m.(San Mauro Torinese, Italy | Unverified Name)
ho pubblicato il mio commento sul mio profilo. Non so usare bebe questo strumento sono da poco iscritta e un pò per volta riuscirò ad entrare nei gruppi che mi interessano. Monica
#256 Zoe.
on January 25, 2009 at 6:37 a.m.(East Retford, United Kingdom | Unverified Name)
i lovee pluto. in primary when we learnt allll the planets i got to be pluto! i was so proud.:)
i miss pluto.
#257 madco, va/ amanda
on January 30, 2009 at 11:11 p.m.(Waterloo, Canada | Unverified Name)
Its ok pluto...I'm not a planet either :/
#258 Katelynn
on February 3, 2009 at 2:21 p.m.(Stamford, CT | Unverified Name)
I'm part of this group!! I feel so special :)
#259 Amy
on February 4, 2009 at 6:07 p.m.(Maryland, Australia | Unverified Name)
what i don't understand is why it is no longer considered a planet just coz its now considered a dwarf planet.. it doesn't make any sense.. take rabbits for example, a dwarf rabbit is still considered a rabbit, just a smaller version of it. so i think that pluto should still be considered the ninth planet but taught that its a dwarf planet because of its size.
#260 Nafisa K.
on February 13, 2009 at 11:47 p.m.(Barnsley, United Kingdom)
Blimey i am shocked! Since science is doubting what it thought; was once right!!! Scientists get researching more please then let us no the FACTS! (If Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system or not!). Always learn't that Pluto was the ninth planet in the solar system. In other words we got taught something that wasn't a fact and learnt ..........!? What other planets later down the line are going to turn out as something else? (wondering)
#261 Kenman L.
on February 23, 2009 at 8:14 a.m.(Toronto, Canada)
Why does scientist have to take away our planet Pluto?!?! Like what's wrong with it, size doesn't matter!
#262 Yvonne L.
on March 3, 2009 at 1:18 p.m.(Location Unknown)
Dwarfs are still people, so isn't Pluto still a planet?
#263 May P.
on March 7, 2009 at 7:22 a.m.(Great Malvern, United Kingdom)
My very easy method just speeds up naming-
...Well done and thanks for taking away pluto - now I struggle remembering my planet names because I had to come up with a new one.
>:U
#264 Felicity W.
on March 8, 2009 at 10:52 p.m.(Auckland, New Zealand)
I was in year 7 (not seven years old) when pluto was declared not a planet -sigh- I dressed up as pluto to remeber how great it truely was.
#265 Ken H.
on April 20, 2009 at 12:48 a.m.(Sault Sainte Marie, Canada)
I get a kick out of all of the people who are calling the classification change with Pluto "genocide". What makes it genocide? What group of people are being exterminated?
Also, someone mentioned above that genocide has not occurred since WW II. I beg to differ. Read:
Pol Pot became the de facto leader of Cambodia in mid-1975. During his time in power, Pol Pot imposed a version of agrarian collectivization, forcing city dwellers to relocate to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labour projects, toward a goal of "restarting civilization" in "Year Zero". The combined effects of slave labour, malnutrition, poor medical care, and executions resulted in the deaths of an estimated 750,000 to 1.7 million people, approximately 26% of the Cambodian population.
How does genocide have anything to do with Pluto's classification as a planet or not?
#266 Ken H.
on April 20, 2009 at 1:11 a.m.(Sault Sainte Marie, Canada)
Does a dwarf star make it not a star or a yellow giant o0r any other names with star in it. No, it just describes a different type. Same as dwarf planet.
So I agree with Amy. Classifications are like grass, tree, glass, automoblie and so pn with every noun in the world. It is a human word given to be descriptive.
#267 Mark M.
on April 30, 2009 at 5:20 p.m.(Teaneck, NJ)
Let's keep those flags of discontent flying! If you google 'the nine planets' you still get lots of hits. So there is a chance to turn this thing around.
#268 Ingeborg N.
on May 2, 2009 at 4:45 p.m.(Madison, WI)
On the one hand, I can understand people feeling nostalgic for a classification system they grew up with: what schoolchild learns that there are "four food groups" or "two biological kingdoms" any more? On the other hand, it <i>is</i> just a classification system--taking Pluto out of one category and putting it into another changes nothing about Pluto itself.
#269 Jimmy J.
on May 15, 2009 at 9:39 p.m.(Roseville, MI)
When I was King of the World, Pluto was a planet, since I am still King of the world Pluto is nothing less. Why don't you fly a ship out there and prove me wrong. It may have its own sol or it may be a big round ball of ice, since the Universe is expanding, it is getting even further away from your eyes. Have a nice trip!
#270 Jimmy J.
on May 15, 2009 at 9:53 p.m.(Roseville, MI)
When I King of the World, Pluto was a planet, since I am still King of the world Pluto is nothing less. Why don't you fly a ship out there and prove me wrong. It may have its own sol or it may be a big round ball of ice, since the Universe is expanding, it is getting even further away from your eyes.
#271 Afshin Y.
on May 24, 2009 at 7:36 a.m.(Anaheim, CA)
The only downside to this Facebook Group is all the spam comments its receives!
#272 Courtney B.
on May 25, 2009 at 9:11 p.m.(Mastic, NY)
I have a few things to say about this subject. The first is that when i went to elementary school, we often had to choose our favorite planet and mine was of course pluto. It has always been the coldest, farthest and most unique and now it is no longer even considered a planet. This makes me sad, i believe that if NASA and the "planet classifiers" were more careful, this slip up wouldn't happen. This may not be a serious topic but its changing everything children are learning about astronomy. My little cousins will never know about the 9th planet that no longer exists and when they ask me why this happened, i wont know what to say.
Also, for all those people who think that we are wasting our time when their are more pressing issues like cancer and genocide, why bother coming onto this page if you think its a waste of time and effort? Obviously you care enough about it to post your opinions and than argue with people about them. If your so serious about these other causes then get off this page and go to darfur!
Thats all i have to say =]
#273 Kristin S.
on May 27, 2009 at 11:40 a.m.(Muskogee, OK)
Wow, You guys need to lighten up. I joined because it reminded me of my childhood and it is sad when things change from the way it was during that special time in your life. Why bring in Darfur or act smarter than others and put them down? A little fun never hurt anyone and it took about a minute for me to join and comment. No big loss to society, right? Have a good day all!
#274 Gale P.
on June 20, 2009 at 3 p.m.(Location Unknown)
oh noooooooooo! i'm crushed!
#275 Charlotte C.
on August 3, 2009 at 6:59 p.m.(Maplewood, NJ)
I just learned that Pluto wasn't a planet anymore yesterday.
#276 Usagi T.
on August 17, 2009 at 7:55 p.m.(Lakewood, CA)
In all honesty I think what bothers most of us in this Pluto group is that something that has been around since before ourselves and will continue beyond ourselves isn't given permanence. And, by taking away it's planetary recognition seal We all realize that nothing we do will last forever.
#277 Sylvia C.
on September 6, 2009 at 9:47 a.m.(Location Unknown)
It think it's stupid you think a planet is not longer a planet just because you quirked your original definition of a planet to no longer accommodate one that is. That would make PLUTO the defactoid ner EPF planetary nuance with a chipp off it's shoulder...
EPF= EX POST FACTO planetoidially demised notion that he ain't offended just cuz it's an ice breaker.
#278 ...what? 8|
on October 15, 2009 at 8:01 a.m.(Msida, Malta | Unverified Name)
"Eric:
You can go feel superior in your astrology classes, lol, I don't care, the laymen will still outnumber you and our words will hold more weight than the words of you super-smarties. Peace out."
....since when has science been democratic? Even the so-called "super-smarties" argue against each other incessantly and try to prove each other wrong, so that the final product, that which is taught in schools as science, is inarguably correct. You can tell your children whatever makes you happiest, and all you "laymen" can believe whatever you want. That doesn't give your words more weight than those of the experts, who actually know what they're talking about.
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