[halgir]

I know it's not a planet, hence my sarcastic "sue me". I suppose the self-irony didn't work too well over text. My point was that many people still know about Pluto as a body that's at the edge of many people's everyday conceptualizations of the solar system, and I argue that makes it a more useful tool for helping people intuitively understand the particular distances involved.

> Only if you were born before it was retrograded which will be less and less likely as time goes on.

I admit my age plays into it. Though I am curious about the role Pluto has in modern primary school, do you know? I understand that it now has the same technical status as Eris et al., but I think it's still a fantastic example of how scientific understanding develops and changes. Not on par with discarding heliocentricity, but a very practical example of ongoing changes still present in our own time.

> As I have no interest in saving American misplaced pride (because let's not kid ourself it's about anything else)

I don't understand how this ties into American pride (nor am I American), what did I miss?

[StopDisinfo910]

> I don't understand how this ties into American pride (nor am I American), what did I miss?

Pluto was the only planet discovered by an American and most of the people who are extremely attached to it tend to feel that removing Pluto as a planet is somehow taking something away from the USA.

As far as I know, the topic barely exists at all in other countries.

[halgir]

Thanks for explaining, I've never heard about this. In my social circle, nobody would seriously try to argue that it should still count as a "real" planet, but we still refer to Pluto-as-planet in an affectionate, nostalgic way.