DhammaSeeker.com

Pluto, the least of the major celestial bodies, never asked to be a planet. Once elevated, it became an influential figure in astronomy and astrology, in classical music and in cartoons.

In 1930, an amateur astronomer discovered the frozen mass and designated it Planet X. It soon orbited into the stratosphere’s most exclusive club as the ninth planet. An English schoolgirl, Venetia Burney, 11, named the newest planet Pluto after the mythological lord of the underworld.

Pluto the Planet, 76, died Thursday in Prague, Czech Republic, when it was killed by the International Astronomical Union — downgraded to a lowly “dwarf planet.”

No memorial service is planned, because it’s been several years since astronomers considered Pluto a real planet.

Astronomy professors and graduate students at Georgia State University approve of Pluto’s reduced status.

“The previous definition was ridiculous,” said Mike Crenshaw of Dacula, a GSU astronomy professor. Crenshaw is now revising his PowerPoint presentations and quiz questions.

No longer will he test students on the smallest of the former nine planets. For the benefit of GSU’s 820 astronomy students, the answer to his question to name the smallest of the planets is now Mercury.

With 300 ballots cast among the 2,500 astronomers, the IAU’s definition now specifies that a planet “has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

It is not Pluto’s size—1,430 miles in diameter—that disqualifies it as a planet. Pluto is out because its orbit—it takes Pluto 248 years to complete one journey around the sun—carried it inside the orbit of Neptune from 1979 to 1999.

In other words, Pluto did not clear the neighborhood around its orbit.

“We’re sad to see it go,” said Angela Sarrazine of Buford, an astronomer at Atlanta’s Fernbank Science Center. But she shares Crenshaw’s belief that Pluto should fall into a lower celestial category.

“I think they made the right decision,” Sarrazine said.

Fernbank will tweak its displays and teaching materials viewed by 180,000 visitors a year.

The science center won’t be covering up Pluto with duct tape in its “The Sky at Night” presentation. It may no longer be a planet, but it’s still up there, Sarrazine said.

Kicked out of one exclusive club, Pluto emerges as the star of the new club of dwarf planets.

“Pluto is now the most famous of the new set,” Crenshaw said.

Pluto was predeceased by the man who first turned a telescope on it. Clyde Tombaugh died in 1997 at age 90. A canister of his ashes is aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which is expected to orbit Pluto on July 14, 2015, according to the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Pluto influenced the arts high and low. Within a year of its discovery in 1930, Walt Disney gave the same name to his new creation Mickey Mouse’s faithful companion — Pluto the Dog.

Whatever happens to the former planet, the Walt Disney Studio said Thursday, Pluto remains Disney’s dog star.

In the more sophisticated arts, British composer Gustav Holst created the popular symphonic suite “The Planets” in 1916 and steadfastly refused to revise the suite after Pluto’s discovery. Thursday, his decision was bestowed added credence by the IAU.

“The Planets” is one of the most popular pieces in symphony orchestra repertoire and has been fodder for legions of film scores. John Williams is said to have borrowed from it for his “Star Wars” scores.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is set to perform “The Planets” Oct. 5-7 at Symphony Hall.

In the world of astrology, Pluto’s designation as a dwarf planet changes little regarding its influence on charting, said licensed astrologer David Railey of Atlanta, a former president of the Metro Atlanta Astrological Society.

After Pluto’s discovery, astrologers took about 30 years to reach a consensus on what the planet’s influence is on human behavior, he said, adding that to astrologers, it will live on as a planet.

“How they choose to categorize Pluto is interesting, but should not affect its astrological meaning and influence,” he said. “We sit on the sidelines, interested and amused. The phenomena stay the same. We are mainly interested in its position and orbit.”

“Pluto in astrology,” he said, “is associated with transformation or rebirth, a rite of passage in a person’s life, a metamorphosis.”

Not unlike what Pluto itself is undergoing.

Survivors include eight planets, Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.

KAY POWELL, AJC Obituary Writer

“I would say that those who herald this decision simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live. I strongly disagree with this decision.”
~ President of the United States, George W. Bush, speaking to reporters at Camp David about the federal judge’s declaration that his administration’s warrantless wiretapping program was unconstitutional and should be shut down.

Clearly, he’s the tool who simply does not understand the nature of the country over which he presides.

To my surprise, yesterday, I was selected to sit on a six man panel in the case of The People of the State of Colorado v. Carlos Eugene Gomez, charged with unlawful sexual contact (a class 1 misdemeanor).

The district attorney presented testimony to establish that Carlos Gomez, an employee of Rocky Mountain Offender Management Systems Westminster office, of his own volition, had the supervised parole of Ms. Angel Gray transferred from the state parole office to RMOMS. That he and another employee took the extraordinary step of visiting Ms. Gray at her place of employment (Saturday Night Live Strip Club) to collect fees. That he alone returned to the Saturday Night Live Strip Club a second time to discuss a private dance. And that on Monday, August 15, 2005, in the RMOMS office, Carlos Gomez asked to grab the ass of Ms. Gray and did, repeatedly asked to see Ms. Gray’s pubic area and pulled on her pants in an attempt to see despite numerous refusals, and
asked to touch Ms. Gray’s breasts and did without her consent.

The defense did not present a case.

Closing arguments and jury instruction was this morning. We took about three hours to all agree to convict Carlos Gomez of the crime charged. It all boiled down to whether or not we found the story told by Angel Gray to be credible or not since there was no eye-witness testimony to support her claims. Some of the jurors had an easier time coming to our verdict than others. One guy, late in the deliberation summed it up this way for the last guy who was still having doubts about her motivation. He said, “She had nothing to gain [by reporting the crime] but her dignity”. I hope he’s right, for the sake of everyone involved.

I woke abruptly in the wee hours of the morning today after visualizing an invisible ass sphincter expelling poop while hovering above me. The poop was about the size and consistency of that belonging to a small dog; not a human thank god. I woke up right as the first steaming string would have landed on me.

I wonder what dream analysts would do with this one.