this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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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 0 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Your original idea only holds if it’s still valid to claim Mars still has oceans, even though they’re all gone. When things stop existing, it changes their properties.

My latest point was to counter your latest point that things like bodies of water or atmosphere should not be considered criteria for identifying a planet or not,

Also, Mars may still have water, under the surface.

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[–] AnyOldName3 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That wasn't a point I made. You said the Earth's skies and oceans would be the same after the hypothetical Earth swaps places with an Earth-sized lump of the Sun event, and I pointed out that they'd be destroyed within seconds. That was kind of separate to the original poorly-thought-through suggestion you made about planet location swaps, and was a second poorly-thought-through claim.

[–] CosmicCleric 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You said the Earth’s skies and oceans would be the same

No, that's not what I was saying, at all.

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[–] AnyOldName3 1 points 3 days ago

Everything about Earth is still the same, skies, oceans, etc. Only difference is that it’s crowded in by other bodies now.

Is pretty clearly saying the skies and oceans would be the same after the Earth's been swapped with part of the Sun.