Terraforming Pluto.

[Perfection]

Far be it from me to criticise the Perfect One, but I'm afraid on this he's wrong, for two reasons:

(1) There is no absolute criterion for whether something is a planet or not - if it orbits the sun, there's grounds for calling it a planet. It's just that sometimes it's useful to us to call one thing a planet and another thing not a planet - just like there's no rigid boundary between "a small pile" and "a big heap". If you think Pluto's a planet, it's a planet.

(2) Inasmuch as these things are official, they are decided by the International Astronomical Union. And if you look at http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/PlutoPR.html you will see that the IAU officially regards Pluto as a planet. It is also officially regarded as one of a number of Trans-Neptunian Objects. In other words, being a Kuiper Belt Object and being a planet are not mutually exclusive: officially, Pluto enjoys the status of each. Perhaps if it were discovered today, we would not call it a planet, given what we know of this region of space - but that's another matter.

Yeah, I did overstate the popularity of my side of the arguement, but most of those who argue for duel citizenship for Pluto (as a KBO and planet) argue it only on historical basis, which is somewhat Ironic because a similar arguement used against pluto was succesfully used against Ceres. Other arguements for it actually require the promotions of Ceres (along with Varuna Quaoar and Sedna) as planets, this wouldn't make a lot of sense as we're confident we're going to find a lot more large KBOs and Inner Oort Cloud objects and so we'd end up with dozens of planets.

 

[Pirate]

How far inside pluto's underground would we have to dig to experience a gravity similar to that of Earth?

You wouldn't. Gravity decreases as you dig because the mass above you balances out the mass below you. At the center of the earth/pluto you would be perfectly balanced and weightless, provided the planet is a perfect sphere of uniform density.

 

[Yuri2356]

I always thought that would happen at the core ^
This makes the "Hole to China" concept even more impossible than it already is, and allows the creation a bottomless pits. If you are suspended in mid-air, you will never hit the bottom.

 

[Blackbird_SR-71]

Perfectionist,
wrong Pluto is a planet because it is part of the Kuiper Belt but it circles much closer than any object you have described. To put it as a rest lets just call it a Planetoid okay people

 

[Perfection]

Perfectionist,
wrong Pluto is a planet because it is part of the Kuiper Belt but it circles much closer than any object you have described. To put it as a rest lets just call it a Planetoid okay people

Those are objects that would be reclassified as planets in a redifinition of planet based on size I was listing those, not KBOs. Quaoar and Varuna are both inside pluto's Aphelion. Also it should be noted that Plutinos like Ixion (A special type of KBO) share an even closer to pluto by having the same 3:2 orbital resonance with neptune as pluto does.

Sedna and Ceres aren't KBOs and I've never said they were.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I found this oddity on one of my space programs. If it's true and Pluto does have double earth's SURFACE gravity, then we MIGHT not have to worry about atmospheric gasses flying off into space

 

[Perfection]

I found this oddity on one of my space programs. If it's true and Pluto does have double earth's SURFACE gravity, then we MIGHT not have to worry about atmospheric gasses flying off into space

Funny, using the data given (mass and diameter) and the inverse square law I get a .093. You've doctored that!

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I did not! I actually found it like that.

 

[Perfection]

I did not! I actually found it like that.

Must've been an error then

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Must've been an error then

I already accepted it as that months ago. I posted it in case someone had a logical explanation for it.

 

[Perfection]

I already accepted it as that months ago. I posted it in case someone had a logical explanation for it.

We do, "it's an error" iis a logical explanation.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

First off pluto isn't a planet.

I don't think it could be terraformed, it is simply to far from the sun. No greenhouse gas is going to be enough to give you the warmth needed to sustain life.

Edit: Oh and the water won't fly off, because it will be ice. (and it's quite likely there already is water on it)

Yes it is...it has a moon! Its almost the size of the moon to.

 

[Perfection]

Yes it is...it has a moon!

So does Ida, but it's still an asteroid!

Its almost the size of the moon to.

The moon is not a planet, how is it helping your arguement by saying it's smaller than a non-planet?

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I know I'm gonna suffer a massive nuke attack by Perfection, but I'm saying this anyway.

Should we actually terraform Pluto and pull it off, these are the post-terraforming statistics I think we'll get from Pluto:

Average world temps:
A mean of 10 to 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

Winds:
Speeds similar to those observed on Neptune (from what I know, the less energy you get from the sun, the less turbulence there is to slow the winds down), in the range of 1000 to 2000 miles per hour.

Precipitation:
Most likely ice pellets and/or hail, and perhaps some snow.

Atmospherice Pressure:
Imagine standing atop a 2 mile high mountain here on earth. (Mount Everest is somewhere between 5 and 6 miles high)

There may be more, but that is what I think we might get after terraforming Pluto. (If we can pull it off in the 1st place)

 

[romelus]

when the sun expands into a red giant, pluto will be livable for a while

 

[Perfection]

I know I'm gonna suffer a massive nuke attack by Perfection, but I'm saying this anyway.

Why make speculations of the results if you have no idea what you are doing?

Should we actually terraform Pluto and pull it off, these are the post-terraforming statistics I think we'll get from Pluto:

Average world temps:
A mean of 10 to 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

Okay so now have to heat it by only 365 degrees!

Winds:
Speeds similar to those observed on Neptune (from what I know, the less energy you get from the sun, the less turbulence there is to slow the winds down), in the range of 1000 to 2000 miles per hour.

Umm Neptune is a gas giant you can't compare atmospheres, also that's not the average wind speed that's only the wind speed near it's great dark spot. Also it's not about solar energy, it's about temperature and pressure and other factors, amd you heating it up with your magic fairies from planet-X is certainly going to change things.

Precipitation:
Most likely ice pellets and/or hail, and perhaps some snow.

Umm Hail requires high surface temperatures.

Atmospherice Pressure:
Imagine standing atop a 2 mile high mountain here on earth. (Mount Everest is somewhere between 5 and 6 miles high)

Ummm that's still 70% of earth's pressure given it's tiny gravity there's no way in friggin' hell that's gonna happen

when the sun expands into a red giant, pluto will be livable for a while

I'm skeptical if it's luminosity wold be enough to heat pluto. Still pluto wouldn't be able to hold onto the atmosphere.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I know I'm gonna suffer a massive nuke attack by Perfection, but I'm saying this anyway.

Why make speculations of the results if you have no idea what you are doing?

Looks like I was correct about that "masive nuclear attack" after all

 

[The Last Conformist]

The solution to the question whether Pluto is a planet is simple; ditch the planet taxon. There's not much reason to place the jovians and the terrestrials in the same box to begin with. Looking at almost any parameter except orbital characteristica, the later have much more in common with the Moon than with the jovians.

 

[Perfection]

The solution to the question whether Pluto is a planet is simple; ditch the planet taxon. There's not much reason to place the jovians and the terrestrials in the same box to begin with. Looking at almost any parameter except orbital characteristica, the later have much more in common with the Moon than with the jovians.

That's an interesting scheme. Please tell me how would you clasify the following under your idea so I can get a better idea what you are talking about: (yeah I know it's a lot)
Mercury
Earth
Ceres
Vesta
Eros
The Moon
Enceladus
Phobos
Titan
Triton
Pluto
Charon
Quaoar
Sedna
Jupiter
Neptune

I picked these because they represent a large diversity of the solar system's worlds.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I didn't claim to have a worked-out taxonomy, but I imagine if I had one, it end us up with something like this:

Mercury - terrestrial
Earth - terrestial (duh!)
Ceres - asteroid*
Vesta - asteroid
Eros - asteroid
The Moon - terrestrial
Enceladus - icy satellite**
Phobos - asteroid
Titan - icy satellite
Triton - icy satellite
Pluto - KBO
Charon - KBO
Quaoar - KBO
Sedna - IOCO
Jupiter - jovian (duh!)
Neptune - jovian

* I think. A terrestrial is supposed to be big enough that it melted its interior at some point and got a metallic core out of the deal; if memory serves, Ceres didn't do this.
** Could use a catchier name.