Poor Pluto!

Remember our discussions of Pluto’s demotion/reclassification? (Lots of link reminders at bottom of post.) Well, here’s a sad (and amusing) image* created by artist Mathias Pedersen:

poor pluto mathias pedersen


You can see a high resolution version of this image here. Don’t forget to look at more of the graphic art of Mathias Pedersen**.

Poor Pluto indeed!

(Take some time to appreciate how good a job he’s done on colours and other features of the planets. For artistic purposes he’s cheated on the scales a bit so that the gas giants (e.g. Jupiter) are not enormously huge compared to the rest, as they actually are – see a graphic here with better scales). I love that he’s also humourously reproduced the extremely unusual tilt angle of Uranus’ axis – brilliant!

Which reminds me – I wonder how the campaign to get Pluto reinstated is going? Anybody been following it? (See this post, for example.) Give us an update, if so.

-cvj

(*I saw this first at the Dynamics of Cats.)
(**Thanks for permission to use this, Mathias!)

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16 Responses to Poor Pluto!

  1. Mr Angell's 4th hour says:

    Get a life! Its a piece of frozen flatulant gas and rocks in the far reaches of space.

  2. Caitie says:

    It’s just not fair. Pluto is a very unique planet and it deserves to be a planet. Pluto is just as important as all the other planets. Making Pluto a “Dwarf Planet” is just like saying we’re going to reclassify you to a dwarf human because your smaller than the normal human. Just because the planet Pluto has a diffrent orbit than other planets doesnt mean its a “BAD” diffrent it just makes it unique better than the other planets. I’ll leave it as it is but we’ve got to change their minds some how

  3. poopooface says:

    Pluto is pretty much frickin amazing and I love it and all the people who demoted it are mean and they should go to heck yo! Someday I’m going to go there and give it a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa and tell him that it’s ok, I’m not a planet either. And those other byooooooooooooooooootch planets that are gangin up on him can die to. Except mars cuz that’s where I love.

  4. Sarah says:

    cute poster; i feel bad now because of the picture but i also feel that pluto needs to stick up for itself. if planets ar gangin’ up on you; you have to tell them “back off i got at&t”

  5. shane says:

    i really do feel bad for pluto, it was really a kick to the balls to me that it was demoted but i swear as long as im alive it will be a planet to me and to my kids when i have some and their kids and so on

  6. BOB says:

    POOR PLUTO LOL!!!!!!!

  7. Lauren says:

    I feel the same way POOR PLUTO!!!! i think it would make a great childrens book too!!

  8. Douglas says:

    I feel sorry for Pluto. Poor pluto. I wish Pluto could be bigger so it can be a planet again.

  9. pricilla says:

    i think dats so mean dat they jus know decided dat pluto isnt a planet its really wrong so i really dont agree wit dat and then so wat is then………..

  10. kimberly says:

    I felt so bad when i saw this pic!!!… But its kind of true!!

  11. But the eye colors aren’t right, though, are they?

  12. Samantha says:

    I somehow feel this image could be the basis of a great children’s book … [what editors, in addition to those at King magazine, read this blog??!].

    Of course it would be a more suitable story once Pluto is reinstated …

  13. Amara says:

    Dear Clifford, I stopped sitting on the fence on this issue after I had some time to think about it. I’m bothered alot by the inconsistency of the definitions, when they are applied literally, and so I stated my opinion over on cosmicvariance:
    http://cosmicvariance.com/2007/03/30/88-largest-objects-in-the-solar-system/#comment-236393
    at the end of March. As far as I know, the compaign to have the issue be brought up at the next IAU meeting continues. I understand that there was a lack of resources this year by the petitioners to have a specific conference discuss this issue, however, the topic is presented and discussed at every opportunity such as the EGU in Vienna (April 15-20), and the upcoming Dawn Launch Symposium, June 28-30. Mark Sykes at PSI, might be the best person to ask about the status of the petition.

  14. Clifford says:

    Yes, take that International Astronomical Union!! If they’d thought about how upset they’d make the poor little planet (just look at its little face!), I bet that the massive vote by 5% of the IAU community would have gone differently. 😉

    -cvj

  15. Samantha says:

    This picture should help jump start the campaign to get Pluto reinstated. Poor poor Pluto.

  16. Navneeth says:

    Great find, Clifford. I Love it. Just look at the way he has used the GRS (and the Uranian tilt).