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Posted to the UseNet Newsgroup "alt.astronomy" "INTRODUCTION" Earth's Moon is *not* like any natural satellite anywhere in our Solar System... Many people know that Isaac Asimov, the world-class sci-fi writer, also wrote a lot of books and articles that were non- fiction. In one of his many articles about the Moon, he showed himself to be avid about changing the Moon's status from mere "satellite" to "major planet". Asimov convinced me that our Moon is far, far more than just a satellite of Earth. So i've posted several articles about all this. And yes, you have rightly guessed it! important reasons why our Earth/Moon system can be thought of as a "binary-planet" or a "double-planet" system. And the science of astronomy, especially the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is destined to someday "officially" realize this and reinstate Selene's classification as a true major planet in its own right. (Yes, i said "reinstate", because as you may know, for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, the ancients thought of the Moon as one of several PLANETS that wandered around the skies of the Earth.) To begin, let there be no doubt in your mind. The IAU, that governing body of global astronomy, now recognizes that our Solar System is made up of eight "major" planets. In order of their increasing distance from the Sun, these are... Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune. Pluto, as you may know, was reclassified as a "dwarf" planet, a minor planet much more consistent with the many other minor objects that orbit the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. There has also been lots of talk and study about other possible planets. At one time there was planet "Vulcan", which was believed to circle the Sun *inside* the orbit of Mercury... http://www.ldolphin.org/unruh/vulcan.html Also, there is "Planet X" that all kinds of things have been written about. Long before 1930, the year when dwarf planet Pluto was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh (and at first believed to be a huge gas giant nearly the same size as Neptune), scientists were out searching for "Planet X". Shortly after Pluto was found, astronomers began to feel that this new planet was not able to "fill the bill". So they decided to continue their quest to find Planet X. I'll leave the rest about the so far mythical and fascinating Planet X to you Gentle Readers to search for and to read about. What we're talking about here is a major planet, and it's right here "in our own back yard". It's not waaay closer to the Sun like the mythical planet Vulcan, nor is it waaay out past Neptune and Pluto like Planet X. The major planet we're talking about right here and now is Earth's so-called "natural satellite", the one... the only... "The Moon" The Planet Moon So i'm going to briefly list all the reasons for us to consider why our Moon is a full-fledged major planet in its own right. Why is this important? It's just a classification thing really, like finding out long ago that the "wanderers" in the sky, out among the stars weren't actually light-emitting stars themselves, but were much closer *reflectors* of light. It's like finding out that some of the cloud-like "nebulae" in the sky were not actually clouds of gas and dust, but indeed were full-fledged "galaxies" in their own right, far outside our own Milky Way galaxy. You wouldn't want to call a "donkey" an "elephant" when you have very strong evidence that it's really a donkey, would you? (Some of the more ultrahyper- conservative donkeys notwithstanding, of course. <g>) I sincerely hope you enjoy this series and Isaac Asimov's hard and undeniable evidence that the Moon is actually a full-fledged major planet in its own right! And i like to call the Moon... _ Planet Selene _ happy days and... starry starry nights! -- Indelibly yours, Paine P.S. Thank YOU for reading! P.P.S. Some secret sites (shh)... http://painellsworth.net http://savethechildren.org http://eBook-eDen.secretsgolden.com |