In August, the International Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto to a dwarf planet. The panel of experts met to officially redefine the characteristics of a planet. To deliver the news to the distant orb about its newly lowered status, scientists at NASA's Kennedy Space Center launched a special messenger probe in September."It's tough, but we thought giving it to Pluto straight was the right thing to do," NASA Chief Engineer James Wood said.
"Pluto is more than 3.5 billion miles from the sun," Wood said. "Launching that probe felt like the best way to avoid alienating it any further."will "take pains" to explain to Pluto that the reasons for the demotion "had nothing to do with anything it did personally." "It was a great planet, and it will be a great dwarf planet," Wood said of Pluto's tenure. "No one is questioning its orbit around the sun, and of course Pluto's gravity and pressure gradient force is plenty sufficient to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium. Pluto still has three moons: Charon, Hydra and Nix. No one's going to take that away from it.
"The Consoler probe will reach Pluto on a Friday, if our calculations are correct," Wood said. "It's always better to do this kind of thing right before the weekend."
We need planetary diversity. How about moons made out of real cheese?
Probe gets confused, orbits Goofy instead
Loudspeaker: “Attention rock! You are just a rock! Thank you, and good night!”
When will congress investigate how this happened ? Pluto was treated so unfairly !
Seems likely to start an interplanetary war
Ha, ha, ha, ha . . .
Just send a text
I have HAD it with NASA!
Adding salt to the wound
Is the probe named after Neil deGrasse Tyson?
Pluto sends a probe back to tell NASA where to stick it (it’s not where you think).
RobotRecall That's just New Horizons
Met my lady doc for the first time a couple weeks ago...we’re REALLY good friends now prostrateexam
It deserved to hear it from us first.
Isn't this a little like breaking up with sometime through a text message?
It will always be a planet in this game i have from the 90s.
Sounds like a job for the Space Force!
Took 'em long enough
First we demote it, then promote it back to a planet and now we are DESTROYING IT!! This is an outrage. Nieltyson CAN YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS
Oh man someone gonna eat this one
This happened in 2006. I guess it took them 14 years to finish the probe?
Pluto sends probe back to NASA informing them that it quits.
It's not a demotion, it's just a change in title. (Famous last demotion words).
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