• Yondoza@sh.itjust.works
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    27 days ago

    Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids sit at Lagrange points. Material found there is not counted in the ‘clearing the orbit’ criteria. They are in stable orbits caused by the mass of the planet in question, not in lieu of a massive enough body.

    • nexguy@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      Well of course that was the exception they had to come up with for their contrived rule. The exception is: “whatever it takes to make pluto not a planet”. Since the vote was agenda fueled and not a scientific discussion.

      Once something new is discovered and breaks the rules they will have to modify the contrived rule to keep pluto not a planet.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        Yes, that’s how science goes. Simple explanations and definitions often fall apart upon further discovery and require caveats that sometimes even reinforce the intention.

        • nexguy@lemmy.world
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          27 days ago

          I agree except in this instance the goal was to keep Earth’s classification important. No other scientific objective. Just seemed very geocentric to me.