1 Misconception About Each Planet

[@nariu7times328]

I remember the Saturn images coming back -- it was amazing to see the rings as we never had before.

[@pigs18]

The Pluto loyalists need to understand that there is no classification that includes Pluto and results in nine planets.

[@servantofaeie1569]

Which is why I support the other ~40 planets the IAU is also wrongly rejecting.

[@HayTatsuko]

My favorite thing about Uranus is that its north pole points almost exactly towards the Sun, so as it goes around in its orbit, it's more rolling along on its equator than spinning mostly upright (or upside-down, in the case of Venus) like all the other planets.

[@arsenic1987]

Well, it wouldn't really "roll on it's equator" along it's orbit during it's autumn and spring. At those times it would appear more to be rolling straight towards the sun :P But yeah, the tilt is indeed one of my favorite things about it as well. Makes you wonder what event(s) happened that caused it to "topple over". :)

[@HayTatsuko]

@@arsenic1987 Ever-so-slowly doing a breakdance spin around the Sun? Maybe someday we'll have an answer regarding what truly toppled Uranus. Makes me also wonder whether Theia was partly responsible for Earth's tilt -- if indeed the Theia impact was a thing.

[@loslomo]

A few years ago I actually got to ask Scott Kelly once when we'd be technologically ready to go to Mars. His response was that it wasn't the technology we're waiting on.

[@DrNothing23]

If you learned Pluto has 5 moons while you were, as you say, "growing up", you're still in your teens...

[@xiongrey19]

See, I feel like everyone misses the point of why Pluto is no longer considered a "planet". The big reason is we were finding a bunch of other giant bodies that fit the description of planet in the kuiper (and asteroid) belts. So we were hit with a choice, either update "the 9 planets of the solar system" to "the 20/30/40+ planets of the solar system" or update the requirements for "planet" and the reclassify Pluto. Honestly it's more for grade school than anything. And really, The word Planet basically has an arbitrary definition. I mean, Mars and Jupiter really are not comparable at all for example. But above all I feel like most people are missing the point. The point is that there are actually a bunch of pluto-like planets in the solar system that deserve just as much attention and interest as Pluto as some are even bigger than Pluto! So the question really is what is the best way to show how these are all equal keep a broad definition of Planets or make a new classification for these. Personally between the two I like the latter but imo we should have gone further and recognized that planet really doesn't mean anything meaningful. We should be teaching about the most significant Solar Celestial objects rather trying hard to pretend that the word planet has any real scientific meaning worth defining.

[@xiongrey19]

tl;dr: "Pluto is not a planet" is not an excuse to not learn about Pluto, but rather an invitation to learn about all the other cool celestial objects that Pluto is like.

[@YayComity]

Planet means "wanderer" because they move around in the sky unlike stars. The Sun and Moon were both once called planets as well until we learned more about them and "demoted" them. There was probably a movement back them wanting to keep the moon as one of the planets. If we had done so there would now be hundreds of them.

[@servantofaeie1569]

How about instead of limiting the number for grade schoolers to memorize, we take the large numbers as they are as we do with everything else in space science. We have ~50 known planets in the Solar System, we just do, and if grade schoolers can't memorize their names then oh well (which I think they can, but that's besides the point).

[@xiongrey19]

@servantofaeie1569 Completely agree. What an 8 year old can or cannot memorize should NOT be the basis for scientific classification.

[@jumpinjehoshaphat9075]

I do not know anyone who thinks that humans have landed on Mars. Hopefully.

[@6thwilbury2331]

Haha isn''t that funny? A lot of videos on various channels do lists of misconceptions, yet no thinking person actually believes such things. Similarly, there are plenty of "Ten Things You Didn't Know About..." lists, and yet there are always a couple of items that most people know.

[@Darxide23]

I'm mostly sure this is an incredibly small number of people and mostly elementary school children.

[@glennso47]

Scientists have tried to call Mars but the line was busy.

[@Argacyan]

Mercury's temperature fluctuations makes me think the poles are probably the safest place to land anything if we wanted to

[@Sonicgott]

That James Webb telescope is a gift to the world.

[@mojosbigsticks]

Down with Mars! Up Uranus!

[@bhasty1]

We should start seeding planets with tardigrades. Apparently those guys can live anywhere.

[@servantofaeie1569]

We have already done that on the Moon a few years ago. We suspect they are still alive.

[@pvtpain66k]

I have Muscovy ducks. One was following my son around, he bumped into a bike pump and it fell & hit the duck on the head. She was pretty messed up, and held her head sideways for several months, needed help drinking & bathing. We named her Oranos, because of the head, which got better, and now she's an asshole. ^_^

[@Apophis324]

I was wondering if you'd do something on Pluto and I'm happy you did. The small space rock should not be ignored, just for no longer being a planet! >: | Another thing you forgot to question when it comes to having humans on Mars is what the water would do to us. *still remembers quite.. vividly that one Doctor Who episode...*

[@servantofaeie1569]

Pluto is still a planet. And so are all it's other dwarf buddies.

[@Apophis324]

@@servantofaeie1569 Well.. if you count dwarfplanets as planets.. then yes.

[@discgolfcasaus]

Pluto is still a planet in New Mexico. Technically whenever it passes over our state. The Land of Enchantment, I love it.

[@rathersane]

I remember that. We should lobby the Roundhouse to declare the whale a fish!

[@discgolfcasaus]

@@rathersane whatever floats your boat. Guys are girls now, so anything could happen...🤷🏽‍♂️

[@Plantbliss]

Lol, I think people feel like Pluto got demoted through no fault of his own. They don’t realize he’s relieved he can retire

[@erinrising2799]

you could do another video about all the dwarf planets, would like to see Eris get some attention

[@lear1980]

I had no idea the Galileo probe made it that far into Jupiter's atmosphere.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

...Just Serves Us Nachos. There, sorted for you! If Pluto was still considered a full-size planet, you'd have to learn a bunch of other names too (Pluto has bigger "cousins"). The atmosphere of Venus was recently found to not have any life in it. The deposits and other molecules detected have been shown to not be living. At least that's the last I heard!

[@Inucroft]

5:20 Just a nitpick, eveybody who had any level of basic education knew the world was round then. Flat Earthers are a very modern phenomenon. Columbus argued the Ancient calculations done in Egypt was wrong and that Earth was *smaller* than people thought.

[@MentalFloss]

Yes, we didn't mean to suggest that wasn't the case, but maybe the writing could've been clearer. The line in the video was "that idea got debunked even earlier than 1492, when Columbus *supposedly* ..." We were trying to convey that Columbus *hadn't* (as some ppl believe) proven the earth was round, but perhaps we didn't clarify or expand enough.

[@romulusnr]

The problem with Pluto as a planet is that we've found enough other things similar to Pluto that if we kept Pluto as a planet, we'd have to add like another three planets or so, at least. Eris (which is nearly as big as Pluto), Ceres, Makemake, Gonggong, to name a few.

[@MentalFloss]

Could we not just say (admittedly arbitrarily) "a planet has to be as big as Pluto" to avoid this?

[@latenightlogic]

And with that reply I’m not bothering with the rest of this video

[@Mezzimo]

@@MentalFloss No

[@dbadaddy7386]

Why not? If it's essentially round because it has sufficient gravity to build a gradient to make it more or less round (as opposed to being round-ish from collisions), and it's primary orbit is around the sun, then why wouldn't it be a planet? Why isn't Ceres a planet?

[@stephenkehl7158]

@@MentalFloss That’s just the problem, it’s arbitrary. The entire reason for reclassifying Pluto was to have an objective definition of planets that all shared the same physical characteristics. Adding an arbitrary exception defeats the purpose. The change in classification does not diminish what Pluto fundamentally is- a fascinating member of the solar system that holds clues to our understanding of how the solar system and the universe work. A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet. Or stinks the same, in the case of Uranus.

[@joewilson3393]

Don't forget for the Jupiter thing, the tons of radiation. I think the craft was named Juno we sent to survey the planet. It had extra sheilding but it was still fried within a few cycles.

[@arsenic1987]

I think you might be referring to Pioneer 10. It went past Jupiter and measured radiation in the magnetosphere. The radiation was higher than predicted, and trough the bow shocks of entering Jupiter's magnetosphere, it encountered a few problems. The trajectory was also put along Jupiter's equator, where the radiation is most concentrated. But after exiting the field, the craft was again fully operational. It's a bit of a misnomer to say "tons of radiation", since there's basically radiation everywhere. Hehe. Jupiter's magnetosphere traps the solar radiation in belts of radiation similar to Earth's Van Allen belts, but way more concentrated. If one was put on a direct polar collision trajectory with Jupiter, there wouldn't be nearly as much radiation, thus it wouldn't be the "problematic" point of "flying trough Jupiter". =) Juno's mission is indeed to survey Jupiter (its composition, magnetic field, gravitational field and magnetosphere mainly in the polar regions), and was scheduled to be deorbited into Jupiter back in 2016, but since it continues to operate fine, the mission has been extended to at least 2025. So it's still in operation.

[@jphilb]

I support Pluto identifying as a planet.

[@MatthewSchooley94]

A few more fun facts about the planets... 1. Jupiter's red spot is not an eye. It is an open wound. 2. Saturn's rings are the gateway. 3. Neptune has been mutated.

[@mandiemoore3272]

I know it's not a planet but my absolute favorite celestial body is uropa. (I'm sure I misspelled that) I'd live to see a piece on it.

[@gobblinal]

Almost got it right. It's amazing how planet-like some of the gas giant moons can be. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon)

[@mandiemoore3272]

@@gobblinal it's the third moon of.. I actually never remember if it's Jupiter or Neptune. I always thought anything with an orbit within our solar system was considered a celestial body. I fell in love with Utopia back in the 90s. I'm kinda into Thea lately.

[@gobblinal]

@@mandiemoore3272 Thea the one that crashed into Earth? Makes me wonder if we are the crashee or the crasher?

[@rikrikonius1301]

Ironically, we know Uranus smells because scientists checked where the sun does shine.

[@donovankriasol]

New episode woow!! Love from México guys

[@uncletrick1]

Uranas = Seymour Butts 🤣

[@quantidel]

Woah mental floss where ya been

[@Darxide23]

What kind of paste eaters think we've actually been to Mars? This sounds like a terrible attempt at a joke. The only people who think boys have been to Mars also think that girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider. And it would help with the juvenile jokes if we pronounced Uranus the proper way. oo-RAWN-oos. That's how the Greeks would have said it.

[@BassJournal]

Remember this channel was once big..

[@Izzak_Beck]

Had no clue that any scientists still think Pluto should be a planet, like that's super rude to Ceres. Also I haven't heard most of these misconceptions, these are wild.

[@dangerdantheone]

Oblate Spheroid

[@geoffroi-le-Hook]

The other thing the Cassini probe did that was noteworthy ... it detected life on Earth.

[@GCrocker662]

Remember the guys that names Saturn rings also demoted Pluto.

[@billyr2904]

Hibernation could prevent loading space crafts with lots of food, but we don't know how to make a human Hibernate because we haven't evolved to Hibernate. The only primates that can Hibernate are the dwarf lemurs, and we are studying them for Hibernation during long distance space travel, because humans are also primates and it makes sense to study our closest relative that Hibernates.

[@brianarbenz1329]

The notion that humans have visited Mars is a “common misconception?” Really? Well, thanks for clearing that up!… Hey, if you were looking for a Mars point, who not the common misconception that we are ready to visit it in 30 or so years, and start colonizing it. Now _that_ is the big con that many were falling for.

[@romulusnr]

12:11 please tell me that's not a dana carvey george h w bush impression impression

[@Ohboymason]

I think people really underestimate how much humanity would change if we colonized mars. Our bodies would rapidly change from high radiation and low gravity

[@accousticdecay]

Pluto is a planet to me and m family.

[@MasriBenzBaby]

Ah, so Venus is possibly Bespin from Star Wars.

[@rparl]

Mother Very Thoughtfully Made a Jelly Sandwich Under No Protest.

[@FCastle23]

Mars is the only planet we know of to be inhabited by just robots

[@gmsherry1953]

6:46 Are you SURE that the mass of land affects the distribution of ocean water? Really? Ocean water is drawn toward continents and islands by the gravity of the land? That has a measurable effect even though the land masses exert such small sideways pull compared to the downward pull of the ENTIRE PLANET? 10:23 Everyplace I can find includes Neptune and Uranus as gas giants (along with Jupiter and Saturn). Did a scientist review this script? After the second reference to there only being 2 gas giants, I left.

[@ReiAyanami8]

The Greek god of the sky's name is pronounced Oo-rah-noose...by the way...

[@tedcoop4392]

Did you actually say "centrifugal force?" 😅😂🤣

[@Ohboymason]

Wtf so neptunes actually way more badass looking and thats no big deal?!

[@johnpraytor1723]

how is Jupiter not the hottest planet? Everybody else is based on the surface temps, yes? The surface of Jupiter totally spanks the temp of Venus' surface.

[@EugeneVerster]

no one in Columbus's time thought the earth was flat mate

[@EB01]

- 480⁰C on Venus? Is that a "~"? (Watching on my phone)

[@geoffroi-le-Hook]

it is ... anything past -273°C would be impossible in this universe

[@BeastOfTraal]

"urine us " is a better name

[@bhasty1]

I used to love this channel. Ah well!

[@Pestacook]

i dont know if its me or the content that changed, but I just cant get myself to actually focus on MT videos for more than like 30 seconds at a time before I drift off hard

[@6thwilbury2331]

I wonder if the same people who insist Pluto is a planet simply because it's what they learned in school are also people who think there is still an East and West Germany or a USSR because that's what they learned in school.

[@jumpinjehoshaphat9075]

Although I prefer to consider Pluto as a planet; apparently the only asteroid I know the name of, a regular predictable orbit and not in a cluster of debris such as those in the asteroid belt, it seems reasonable. However, I am able to accept that the Germanys have become unified and the USSR has broken into 15 separate countries, just as I accept that Prussia no longer exists, that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has broken to many entities and a tsar is no longer on the Russian throne. Easy stuff, facts are facts.

[@route2070]

Not only facts are facts, but Russia and Germany has their own governments, populations etc... who decide this. Planets on the other hand has a definition that some who work in the field still disagree on. Also there's still disagreement on what is the proper country, Isreal or Palestine.

[@phife1878]

Considering those countries actually experienced change and Pluto did not, that's not a very solid comparison.

[@erikallen863]

@phife187 Pluto may not have "experienced a change," as it is what it has always been, but what "experienced a change" is the understanding and knowledge of it. It's part of something bigger than originally thought. Much more fascinating. Unfortunately, some disregard or ignore this fascination because they would rather inexplicably declare that "Pluto is SO a planet!! Why? Because, that's why!!1!" Imagine not caring about new discoveries because "your" understanding is updated, so you instead focus on being upset that the label is different. That's what science is. It's neither right nor wrong. It just *is*. And our understandings adjust to new findings.

[@davect01]

Pluto did not change, simply our definition of it

[@SchmySeymour]

Just report science stories in metric already!!!!! (subtitles over images is not sufficient)

[@Andersl201]

Why is the criteria of "dwarf" different from planets to suns? Pluto is not a planet, but Sol is our sun? Both are dwarfs.

[@BenRollinsActor]

I learned the planets with a different mnemonic: Men Very Easily Make Jugs, Serving Useful, Necessary Purposes.

[@oscodains]

One fact about Pluto is ITS A PLANET YOU PLANET DENIALIST.

[@NikodAnimations]

So you want to also call Ceres, Hygiea, Eris, Makemake, Haumea, Ixion, Sedna, Orcos, Quaoar, Varuna, and other spherical bodies planets? Do you want grade school kids to suffer?

[@koppadasao]

Earth is flat. Just as a neutrino

[@sadib100]

Why are you praising Columbus? You might as well say the Earth is flat.

[@MentalFloss]

The line was "That idea got debunked even earlier than 1492, when Columbus supposedly proved to the haters that you couldn’t sail off the edge of the planet." Perhaps could be written clearer, but the intention was to say "no, Columbus did not prove the earth was round, that was already well-established (despite what you might've heard).

[@sadib100]

@@MentalFloss I kind of got that, but you could have spend the extra two seconds to elaborate on your idea.

[@xeroxcopy8183]

why does this guy just suddenly start whispering for no reason

[@SECONDQUEST]

Is it not "hoi-gins" (Huygens)? It definitely is. Huygens (/ˈhɔɪɡənz/ HOY-gənz