So they stripped Pluto of its status as a planet and now we have just eight planets. We’ve had nine since I was in grade school and I always found a certain fascination for the coldest known world in the solar system. Then theirs Xena, which would have been the tenth planet for sure and an even colder world than Pluto.
Instead we loose a planet and now we have dwarf planets. Or maybe to be politically correct, we should call them “size-challenged planets.”
Since grade school, I’ve found the real interest to be the moons of the four major planets. The most fascinating is that of Titon. The recent pictures show a land that looks remarkably earthlike, with harbors of now dry lakes or seas. The picture from the landing craft shows a smooth rocky world, flat like my homeland and an orange sky. It looks quite pleasant and if I ever find a jeannie to grant me three wishes, one will be to spend an hour on Titon, since I don’t think I will live long enough to see the day when humans can travel there. I’ll barely live long enough to see men on Mars, which would be my second choice of outer-space vacations.
And still, standing on Pluto or Xena, and knowing I was standing at the edge of the known solar system, where the sun is only a large star and there is virtually no heat is still a fascinating thought. Any of these places I go, I’ll need s space soot. Even on Titon, which has an atmosphere similar to the thickness of Earth’s, it’s nearly -300 degrees Fahrenheit and the air is un-breathable. I would need a good space suite. A good fur coat with an oxygen mask just wouldn’t do it.
Still, I miss Pluto and Xena already. What a pisser.
You folks have been ripped off.
Pluto
Xena
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