Nothing dysfunctional about this relationship, no nothing a'tall!
Ah well, it seems they've ironed things out now. Let's just hope nothing happens to interrupt their fun, like in the next page or two. That so wouldn't happen in this comic!
I've explained it before in other scenes, but I'll point out again that the virtual environment they're streaming through is not a hologram; it's an augmented reality environment (they call it “meta,” for “metareality” or “metaverse”). It's not like the holodeck on Star Trek; the simulation is being fed directly into their augmented brains as a sort of shared hallucination. It comes in very handy when you're spending weeks on end inside a cramped spaceship surrounded by lethal vacuum.
My memory is fuzzy on this, but I remember a very long time ago I was corrected in the comments section here at one point for describing Pluto as a “planet.” I pointed out at the time that scientific conventions are always in flux, and even though Pluto is currently not considered a planet, that could very well change over the course of the distant or even not-so-distant future.
In fact, the current IAU definition of a planet, which was adopted in 2006, is already outmoded and fatally flawed. It does not apply to exoplanets or rogue planets. And arguably, the same criteria that were used to disqualify Pluto can just as easily be used to disqualify Neptune, Jupiter, Mars, and Earth, none of which have cleared their orbital regions of debris.
To solve this dilemma, a new planet classification scheme was discussed at the latest Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston. This new classification system would basically make any substellar object massive enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium a planet, regardless of its orbital characteristics. If adopted, that will make Pluto a planet again… and it will also make Pluto's “moon” Charon a planet, as well. Pluto-Charon will become a binary system. And guess who else joins the Binary Planet Club? We do! Because the moon will officially become a planet as well. That sounds intuitively nutty at first, but when you think about it, Earth-Luna makes a lot more sense as a binary planet system than a planet-moon system. Compared to other planets, our moon has a gigantic relative size to the Earth.
The new classification system would increase the number of planets in our solar system from 8 to 110. It has already been adopted by the University of Hawaii's Planet Science Research Discoveries, but it will be an uphill battle to get the definition of a planet officially changed. Many heavy hitters in the astronomical community are strongly against the change, notably including Carolyn Porco of Voyager and Cassini mission fame.
Whether or not this particular proposal ever sees the light of day, I do believe the current IAU definition's days are numbered. Pluto will be a planet again, some day.
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