Favorite planet other than Earth

[Adam Griffin]

Neptune

[Middle-aged Europe]

I still consider Pluto a planet.

My vote goes to Neptune.

Eris is bigger and heavier than Pluto though. So why do you consider Pluto a planet, but not Eris?


Anyway, Jupiter is my favorite gas giant and Mars my favorite terrestrial planet. Voted for Jupiter.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Uranus, for reasons that have nothing to do with stupid anglophone puns. It's just a pretty weird planet all around.

[muon2]

If Pluto is on the list, why can't we vote for Eris? It orbits the sun, is larger than Pluto, and has a moon.

I thought about Eris (and ceres as well) in the abstract, but Pluto is still the only one named after a Disney Character, and the only one that gets my vote. 

Alas, Disney took the name from the newly discovered object. Pluto was named for the god of the underworld as suggested by the granddaughter of an Oxford librarian. It was favored among names since the first two letters are the initials of Percival Lowell who started the project to find planet X beyond Neptune.

Ceres is another good suggestion, and an instructive tale for those who long for Pluto's return to the list of planets. The orbit of the asteroids was predicted to hold a planet and in 1801 Ceres was discovered and considered that missing planet. It and the other large asteroids were listed in tables of the planets until the mid-1800's. At that point after a gap of almost 40 years astronomers began discovering many objects in the asteroid belt. With so many objects in that region, the original asteroid-planets were reclassified removing the planetary designation. Note the historical parallel to Pluto. Like Pluto, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

[angus]

... after a gap of almost 40 years astronomers began discovering many objects in the asteroid belt. With so many objects in that region, the original asteroid-planets were reclassified removing the planetary designation. Note the historical parallel to Pluto. Like Pluto, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

I'd read that about seven years ago in National Geographic.  The article was entitled "And then there were eight" or something like that.  Sad about Pluto, or so I thought.  Of course, the astronomical puzzles and toys I'd purchased for my son in his infancy all featured Pluto ("named after a delightful dog!"), but eventually, over the years, it has been phased out.  Nowadays the models have eight planets only.  I suppose he doesn't even remember a time when Pluto was a planet.  In the chart on his bedroom wall, there are eight planets and three dwarf planets and to him--and I suppose his entire generation--it all seems normal.  But when we visit the labs of higher learning, as we do on days like today--President's Day; ergo, take your child to work day--he notices that the little mechanical solar systems still have pluto.  Quaint, perhaps, and dated, but I like it.
 
Anyway, the fundamental reason for my vote for pluto was best summarized by Clarko95.
 

[muon2]

... after a gap of almost 40 years astronomers began discovering many objects in the asteroid belt. With so many objects in that region, the original asteroid-planets were reclassified removing the planetary designation. Note the historical parallel to Pluto. Like Pluto, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

I'd read that about seven years ago in National Geographic.  The article was entitled "And then there were eight" or something like that.  Sad about Pluto, or so I thought.  Of course, the astronomical puzzles and toys I'd purchased for my son in his infancy all featured Pluto ("named after a delightful dog!"), but eventually, over the years, it has been phased out.  Nowadays the models have eight planets only.  I suppose he doesn't even remember a time when Pluto was a planet.  In the chart on his bedroom wall, there are eight planets and three dwarf planets and to him--and I suppose his entire generation--it all seems normal.  But when we visit the labs of higher learning, as we do on days like today--President's Day; ergo, take your child to work day--he notices that the little mechanical solar systems still have pluto.  Quaint, perhaps, and dated, but I like it.
 
Anyway, the fundamental reason for my vote for pluto was best summarized by Clarko95.
 

But by Clarko95's logic since Ceres was a newly discovered planet first, shouldn't it take precedence over Pluto?

[DemPGH]

Uranus is a fascinating planet - it has the coldest atmosphere of any planet in the solar system and it is the only planet to be tilted on its side so that one of its polar regions faces the Sun. Really interesting to ponder how that might have happened. Something hitting it has always been one of the leading theories, maybe when it was forming. I'd think something large enough to knock it over on its side now would run the risk of knocking it out of orbit.

It's also a very pretty pale blue.

No shouts for Venus? Searing heat and pressure dense enough to crush ordinary objects. I think that happened to the first probes that landed there although not sure.

[Хahar 🤔]

Terminus

[Franknburger]

You can't take out Pluto. There is that famous German verse to memorise the planets' sequence: "Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten"  (My Vader explains me every Sunday our nine planets). The final "p" will be really missed, and Eptun (or Aeptun, for "eight"->"acht"  in German) does also not sound really good...

[angus]

But by Clarko95's logic since Ceres was a newly discovered planet first, shouldn't it take precedence over Pluto?

possibly.  If he grew up with puzzles and toys which featured Ceres as a planet, but now his children are deprived of the joy of learning the name of Ceres, then maybe he should vote for Ceres.  But that's more of an existential question, since Ceres wasn't in the poll in the first place. 

As a Vader, don't you enjoy explaining them every Sunday our nine planets?

[muon2]

But by Clarko95's logic since Ceres was a newly discovered planet first, shouldn't it take precedence over Pluto?

possibly.  If he grew up with puzzles and toys which featured Ceres as a planet, but now his children are deprived of the joy of learning the name of Ceres, then maybe he should vote for Ceres.  But that's more of an existential question, since Ceres wasn't in the poll in the first place. 

As a Vader, don't you enjoy explaining them every Sunday our nine planets?

With the discovery of KBOs in the 90's I was convinced that Pluto's days as a planet were numbered just as Ceres' were over 100 years before. By the time of the discovery of Varuna (2000) and Quaoar (2002) I was teaching my children (and students) that Pluto didn't fit any reasonable definition of a planet that wouldn't eventually make 100's of other solar system objects into planets.

Science advances with new knowledge, what could be more important to teach than that?

[angus]

But by Clarko95's logic since Ceres was a newly discovered planet first, shouldn't it take precedence over Pluto?

possibly.  If he grew up with puzzles and toys which featured Ceres as a planet, but now his children are deprived of the joy of learning the name of Ceres, then maybe he should vote for Ceres.  But that's more of an existential question, since Ceres wasn't in the poll in the first place.  

As a Vader, don't you enjoy explaining them every Sunday our nine planets?

With the discovery of KBOs in the 90's I was convinced that Pluto's days as a planet were numbered just as Ceres' were over 100 years before. By the time of the discovery of Varuna (2000) and Quaoar (2002) I was teaching my children (and students) that Pluto didn't fit any reasonable definition of a planet that wouldn't eventually make 100's of other solar system objects into planets.

Science advances with new knowledge, what could be more important to teach than that?

You were ahead of the game.  Actually, so was John Dibble, as I recall.  When it came out that Pluto was no longer a member of the very exclusive club of solar planets, there were threads about it on this forum.  It was one of the things I actually heard here first.  That, and the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Yes, of course it's important to teach the children that scientific knowledge is testable and tentative.  When I first studied biochemistry as an undergraduate student, everyone knew that all enzymes were proteins.  That was gospel.  Now, we have ribozymes.  It's an example I use often.  Still, I miss Pluto.  I'll stand by my vote for the planet named after a cartoon character.  As a child I thought of it as the coldest and most exotic planet, but also the most friendly.  It was a planet with big eyes and a goofy buck-toothed smile and a beat-up fedora.  Then again, I often confused Goofy and Pluto as a small child as well.  Nevertheless, prejudices die hard.

[YL]

I think it's perfectly reasonable to regard Pluto as a planet, but only if you regard Eris and the other dwarf planets as planets too.

I voted Saturn.  Not only for the planet itself and the rings, but for its fascinating moons, especially Titan and Enceladus.

[courts]

ff

^

Rei is great. (Manga!Rei, especially.)

i prefer the snarky bitch version seen in the anime

[Velasco]

Saturn, because of the rings and its moons. Satellites around Saturn (Titan, Enceladus) and Jupiter (Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, etc) are obviously amongst the most interesting celestial bodies in the Solar System.

[angus]

You'll all be happy to know that they're still teaching the young scholars about Pluto!  Today when I asked my son what he learned in school, he said he studied about space.  After some probing, I discovered that they had discussed the planets of the solar system.  He mentioned Pluto.  I asked whether it was a little rock or a gas giant.  He said "Rock.  With ice."  I asked about its rotational period, and he said "261 years."  (I think it might be more like 249, but why quibble?)  I asked whether it was a dwarf planet, and he said "yes, like Eris and Ceres."  I asked whether the teacher talked about other dwarf planets, and he said no.  Pluto was the only dwarf planet discussed.  No matter whether we want to segregate pluto from the other eight, the schools still teach about Pluto, its composition, its rotational period, and the like.  Just like the other eight.  Equality!

On the other hand, you'll be saddened to learn that the old "named after a lovable Disney character" bit no longer holds any charm.  After our discussion of the fact that Mrs. Niedermeyer is probably old school and still respects the Pluto of her youth--whether or not those NASA folks want to show it any respect--I said that I was glad that they were still learning about Pluto.  "After all," said I, "it's the only one named after a Disney character."  To which my son promptly replied, in deadpan seriousness, "um, No.  It's named after the god of the Underworld."  I didn't know whether to be dismayed that I didn't get a smile, or delighted by the fact that they're also learning something about the classic stories of antiquity.  Apparently the federally-mandated race to the bottom with its attendant overemphasis on the mechanics of numeracy and literacy hasn't completely displaced discussions of Greek mythology.  

[politicallefty]

I don't really have a particular favourite, but when we learned about the planets and all that stuff in second grade, I always liked Saturn. I really don't know why exactly. So, I'll give it my vote.

Venus almost irritates me. Its runaway greenhouse effect has been hugely detrimental to unmanned probes, let alone the near impossibility of ever having a manned mission under current circumstances. From what I recall, only the Soviet Union ever had unmanned probes land on the surface (the Venera missions), which only the longest lasted barely two hours.

[MATTROSE94]

The one that might have been able to support life on it millions of years ago.

[Fritz]

The one that men may be walking on in about 12 years, if all goes well.

[Napoleon]

Pluto (1990s)

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Who says Earth is my favorite planet?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The one that men may be walking on in about 12 years, if all goes well.

Luna isn't usually thought of as a planet except when people speak of Terra-Luna as a double planet.