this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
334 points (99.1% liked)

xkcd

9974 readers
133 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
koraro
334
xkcd #3063: Planet Definitions (xkcd.com)
submitted 1 week ago by schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de to c/xkcd
46 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CosmicCleric 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Should Ceres be a planet?

I honestly don't know. I tend to say no, as it seems to just be a lifeless rock with no geological activity. I'd love to have rules to identify that, made by planetary geologists.

But I wouldn't want to disqualify a body with planetary characteristics like geological activity just because the space around it is busy, or it's orbit is not in the ecliptic plain, etc.

~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ceres does appear to be active in some form with cryovolcanoes, based on the 2015 Dawn mission.

I think focus ought to be more on what the qualifications are for the minor label. What does it mean to be minor?

[–] CosmicCleric 0 points 1 week ago

Ceres does appear to be active in some form with cryovolcanoes, based on the 2015 Dawn mission.

Then It's say that it was a planet, though IANAPG.

I think focus ought to be more on what the qualifications are for the minor label. What does it mean to be minor?

There shouldn't be a 'minor' nomenclature, it's a contrivance. It's a planet, or not

Also, to reiterate, the issue being discussed is one of disqualification, and not what qualifies. Identifying a body as a planet or not should not be done based on the criteria of the crowded or not nature of the space around it.

~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~