All of U.S. History Has Taken Place in One Plutonian Year
Back in 2015, as the New Horizons probe was approaching Pluto, NASA posted an illustration of the dwarf planet’s orbital timeline:
A short piece on Vox then noted:
The entire history of the United States has unfolded in the time it’s taken Pluto to orbit the Sun once.
And that’s still true! But just barely. Pluto takes 247.94 Earth years to orbit the Sun. According to my calculations, the Plutonian year that started on July 4, 1776 will end this year on June 12, 2024 (give or take a few hours).
Comments 4
Phew! If it were Nov 5, 2024 I’d have a solar systemic freak out!
Just like Pluto to piggyback on America’s Greatness after being downgraded to dwarf status. Sheesh.
So, some folks on Bluesky suggested that we should have a party on June 12th to celebrate this occasion. Anyone have any suggestions for how to do this? Virtual party? Distributed party?
For the First Plutonian Anniversary of America, we should submit photos or costumes of plants, animals or inventions that have been reclassified or recategorized in some way (lots of opportunity here in the plant world, including the apple: https://pacifichorticulture.org/articles/why-plant-names-change-2/).
Not sure if internal changes should really count, but in that case, the USA itself would qualify, since the reorganization of the 1780s changed it from a confederation to a federation.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
This thread is closed for new comments & replies. Thanks to everyone for participating!