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xkcd #3063: Planet Definitions (xkcd.com)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd

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Under the 'has cleared its orbital neighborhood' and 'fuses hydrogen into helium' definitions, thanks to human activities Earth technically no longer qualifies as a planet but DOES count as a star.

https://explainxkcd.com/3063/

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[–] CosmicCleric -4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Things can get defined separately from themselves. And they can be defined to be several things. I’m a Norwegian and a German because of my parents.

Your political nationality doesn't stop classifying you as a human being.

Being a world is different from being a planet.

You completely avoided the point I was making, that a body doesn't stop being a planet because it's neighborhood/orbit is crowded.

If the Moon got too close to Earth so that it broke up (Roche limit), so that now Earth has not cleared the space around it, it would stop being a planet for a million years or more until it "cleared out" it's local space/ orbit, based on the rule that disqualifies a Pluto from being a planet.

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