entranceway | 004

Entry tags:

004 | video

[When the video turns on, there's Riley, and she's holding up what looks to be at least a few sheets of posterboard. On the very front is a drawing of a smiling planet that looks like it's holding a heart.]

Ooookay, so it's come to my attention that there are a lot of people here that don't know about Pluto, the last planet in Earth's solar system. I'm going to change that. First things first! This is what Pluto looks like. We got pictures back recently and it looked like it had a huge heart on it. [And she'd totally called it before the pictures even got recieved too, having always said Pluto had a lot of heart.]

I couldn't get the actual picture so I asked Maya to draw it.

[And she drops that top piece of posterboard, revealing something that looks like a bulleted list???]

The first important thing is that Pluto used to be a planet. Eventually a bunch of scientists decided it was too small to be an actual planet though, so they called it a dwarf planet instead. From the time it was discovered to when it got demoted to a dwarf planet, it didn't even have a chance to go all the way around the sun! Because it's that far away from us! That's pretty unfair, since Pluto never really got a chance.

[She huffs.]

That's why I still call it a planet, though. I'm always gonna believe that it's a planet, even if everything says it can't be. We don't know what it could do or anything about it because it's so far away. I just wanted to make sure that everyone here knew that.

Threaded | Flat

Wait...what? It's not a planet anymore? When did that happen?

[He sounds totally baffled...but also like he's wondering if scientists just decided it wasn't a planet anymore while he wasn't paying attention. He's going to feel so dumb if it happened in his time.]

Edited 2017-02-26 00:34 (UTC)

I thought Pluto was a dog...

If it helps, Riles, I don't think Pluto gives a damn.

I don't care what people think of me, can't see why a planet would.

[But, see? He said planet.]

I wonder if they'll change their minds again and make it a planet.

[Clearly the most important question of them all.]

[While astronomy was not Newt's expertise, this girl certainly had his attention when she began speaking of something he had never heard of. Of course because said planet had yet to be discovered in the lifetime he had lived so far.]

This planet, if I may ask, when was it discovered?

[Rip almost feels bad, but honestly? He does make this reply with the intention of helping. Just not in the way Riley likely wants.]

Technically, Pluto was never a planet. Scientists merely defined it as one because their understanding of such things was limited at the time. As people have learned more about the universe and how it operates, they've come to better understand the differences between the heavenly bodies, what it means to be a planet or a dwarf planet or a moon, and so on.

[See? It's not a bad thing! It's progress!]

It's not a matter of what it can or cannot be; simply a more refined understanding of what it is.

[Cue the agonized groans of annoyance.]

I thought I just got away from space. And now you're bringing it up again?!

I mean, yeah, Pluto's a nice planet... Non planet... Thing. But really, did you have to blabber on about it now?

[Excuse him, he's having flashbacks of having to listen to the Space Core rambling on about space for extended periods of time. He got sick of it after an hour.]

[Sans hasn't wanted to talk to pretty much anyone in about a week now, and he just sort of happened to glance at the network and.]

[Huh. Space stuff.]

[He doesn't really know who this kid is, but...but space stuff...]

you guys actually...people got pictures of it? like up close?

[It has a heart on it? What??]

I like the picture of Pluto your friend made. It's very cute!

Anyway, your passion for astronomy is admirable. Did you know that Pluto's name was suggested by an 11 year old girl? She wanted to name the previous planet after the Roman god of the underworld. Incidentally, the names of Pluto's moons also share names from Roman mythology - Styx being the river to the underworld and Charon is named after the ferryman who would carry the dead through the underworld, to name a few.

[The more you know~]

[Thank god this isn't technically canon.]

Scientists don't know shit anyway.

That is an excellent drawing. Also, you're absolutely right. Plus, demoting Pluto totally ruins the mnemonic device teachers use to help kids remember the planets. What do they tell kids now that they can't use "My Very Energetic Mother Just Sliced Up Nine Pizzas"? "My Very Energetic Mother Just Sliced Up Nothing?" That's just depressing.

[Wait, what? Pluto's not a planet anymore? Wow, the things that happened in the future.]

Sometimes it's even closer to the Sun than Neptune in its orbit.

[But that didn't matter though but its size, it seemed. Man.]

I like the drawing, by the way.

Nothing. It's pretty useless. There's just a couple of science stations and military bases in orbit. And it's not that far away. I mean, not from Earth anyway. Short jaunt.

Earth-centric bullshit.

Edited 2017-02-26 15:20 (UTC)

I might have seen something like that. I don't know.
What's so great about it?

[Kon looks at the picture, then grins.]

Oh, hey, I've been there.

O-oh. Oh, boy, uh.

Hey, just make sure you're careful i-if you start trying to campaign for that back at home, you know? It's probably okay here and all, but I guess Pluto stuff gets complicated? It did in my dimension, anyway.

Yeah! Let Pluto be what it wants to be. Just because it's small doesn't mean it's not worthy of being a real planet.

Maya drew that? [He tilts his head thoughtfully.] That's impressive.

As to whether or not Pluto's a planet... if you believe it is, isn't that all that matters?

Edited 2017-03-01 19:35 (UTC)

Threaded | Flat

Video

video

video

video;

video;

video