User talk:Bpell

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[edit] Welcome

Hello Bpell, and Welcome to Wikipedia! Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Also, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! Pastordavid (talk) 06:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC) Getting started Introduction The five pillars of Wikipedia How to edit a page Finding your way around Table of contents Department directory Editing articles How to develop an article Manual of Style Getting help Frequently asked questions Cheatsheet Where to ask a question Help pages New contributors' help page How you can help Contributing to Wikipedia Community Portal Follow Wikipedia etiquette Practice civility

[edit] Response

In response to your query on my talk page. I'm not sure what articles you are having trouble with, as you did not provide me with that info. However, here are some general suggestions. If it is a dispute between you and one other editor, try a request for a third opinion. If it is more than that, try to get more opinions through a request for comment.

I do realize that wikipedia can be a little difficult to navigate at first. Perhaps it would help you to leave these articles and move on to helping in other ways for a a while, just to learn your way around a little more? You seem to already be using talk pages, which is a plus. Article talk pages are where consensus is developed as to how the articles should be written. If I can be of further assistance, please drop me a note. And please sign your comments by typing four tildes at the end of your comments (like this: ~~~~). Thanks. Pastordavid (talk) 07:01, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Your webpage

I've had a glance through it, and I have some thoughts about it.

1. Planetesimals and asteroids are not always considered the same things. Asteroids are not pristine fragments from the origins of the Solar System, but have gone through their own evolution.

3. As far as I'm aware, only five asteroids have ever been considered planets

4. The history of the word planet shows that it has been used to mean many things, including moons, not to mention the Sun.

5. Heliocentricity was not known in ancient times. A few radical philosophers had believed in it, but they had no proof. Indeed, the first proof of heliocentrism didn't arrive until Freidrich Wilhelm Bessell measured the first stellar parallax in 1838.

6. The discovery of the asteroids extended our definition of planet, but then retracted it back with the creation of the term "minor planet" 53 years later.

7. Pluto (which was discovered in 1930, by the way, not 1935) remained a planet long after its size was determined (which, let's be fair, was only in 1978) because its orbit was thought to be unique. Its status wasn't called into question until the discovery of the Kuiper belt in 1992.

8. Why would comets need to be considered planets?

9. What historical precedent is there for describing comets as planets? If you know of any, I would love to include it in my article.

11. As far as I'm aware, the battle fought in the IAU (I watched the video) was entirely between dynamic physicists and geophysists. If wandering stars ever got a look in, I didn't notice.

12. Since the word planet has included the Sun in the past, it seems a bit hasty to say that planet always referred to a circumsolar body. If any circumsolar body is a planet, does that include dust particles? Serendi^podous 18:34, 13 February 2008 (UTC)