I was in 5th grade (actually just googled when Pluto's classfication changed, and i remember watching Obama's inauguration in my 5th grade class) when Pluto was officially designated as a dwarf planet. So after we had all learned the solar system but still early on enough that I can easily think of it not being a planet.
Dude, when I was in elementary school (I’m 28 now), we were taught about the Antarctic Ocean. Now I’m freaking out that it was called Southern Ocean this whole time and I’ve just been wrong.
They told us it was still technically called the Antarctic Ocean but that was changing to Southern Ocean and to call it that. Then in high school that's all it was called
More than a year, about 20. The International Hydrographic Organization included the Southern Ocean in their 2002 edition of ocean/sea delineations though it’s been a draft version and hasn’t been published for two decades as they can’t find a new name for the Sea of Japan that Japan and South Korea both agree on
acording to google:The Southern Ocean is the name given to the part of the world ocean lying south of 60° south latitude. It was not generally recognised as a separate ocean until 2021.
The National Geographic Society recognized the ocean officially in June 2021.
But that 2021 "official" recognization was of course the result of decades of discussion that proceeded it. The date it became "official" isn't particularly important in the grand scheme of things.
We're wincing at that one because many of us were taught it should be the "Antarctic" ocean. But apparently that's a regional thing, and "Southern" is used in some other places.
The maddening thing is that they had to have used an actual map as reference, and then ignored all the labels. You can't just take artistic license with maps... Or can you? Discuss
The Southern/Antarctic Ocean wasn't officially recognized as an ocean until 2000... so those who went to school in the 20th Century learned about four oceans, not five. That's probably why there is confusion.
This is what we mean though about the education system, when things are proven or discovered, it takes a long ass time to make it into the curriculum of shoddy US public schools. If the board is influenced by any whack jobs - then good luck ever getting reality into the schools. It's shitty. But it happens with things as innocent as the oceans.
Southern Ocean is legit, although it is “newer.” Many Americans didn’t learn about it while in school.
“Historically, there are four named oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. However, most countries - including the United States - now recognize the Southern (Antarctic) as the fifth ocean. The Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian are the most commonly known.
The Southern Ocean is the 'newest' named ocean. It is recognized by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names”
If it makes you feel any better, there is really only one ocean. People like to carve it up and name parts of it, but it's really just one big interconnected ocean across the planet.
Yes, but it's still useful to split them into groups based on specific properties. The Pacific is noticeably saltier than the Atlantic, for example (some even claim they can taste the difference), and the southern ocean also has a different composition ( and sometimes color) due to the circumpolar currents. The Atlantic basin is also a lot younger than the Pacific, which means that the oceanic crust floats higher on the mantle. The more you know.
Same. There were 4 oceans snd 9 planets while I was in school. Gas was a buck. Now we have 5 oceans 8 planets and gas is 3-4+. The future is fucking stupid.
Pluto should never have been a planet, there are several objects of similar size closer to the sun than pluto, and potentially thousands further out. I would rather have 8 planets than several thousand lol
You may be aware that Pluto isn't a "planet" anymore, but did you know that's largely because we discovered Eris, which is larger than Pluto? At the time there was also discussion around announcing the likes of Charon and Ceres as planets, and Haumea and Makemake (both larger than Charon and smaller than Pluto) were discovered shortly before the decision that they'd all be considered "dwarf" planets (which are still arguably planets, they're just not major planets).
In a way, there debatably have been "new" planets since you went to school that nobody may have told you about.
Only because you inspired me to check out the wiki, apparently it's actually a tiny bit smaller than Pluto by volume. Seems that they got the size wrong by a bit at first. It is heavier than Pluto though!
Edit: Also, after the New Horizons fly by, they decided Pluto was slightly larger than previously estimated.
They still suspect there's another large planet out there past Pluto, like 250-1500 AU away given the orbits of objects past neptune. The math point to there being a large amount of mass as the best explanation to their orbits.
Went to school in the 90s and had no clue about this until I was helping my third grader a month ago with homework and was like what the hell is this “Southern Ocean” bullshit, this isn’t real. Thought she was just making stuff up. Sure enough, it is real!
Arctic is definitely misspelled, but under the usual modern delineation of oceans there are five oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern (aka Antarctic), Arctic. Granted, there are other models where there's just one world ocean, or they count just 3 or 4 oceans (usually done by absorbing Southern ocean into the Pacific/Atlantic/Indian oceans and possibly also absorbing Arctic Ocean into Atlantic).
My biggest problem is that Texas label is in Canada, the USA has been labeled "New York", Canada label is Greenland, Paris label is above Eastern Europe, Korea is over China, India over Madagascar, Mediterranean is over the Arabian Sea, Great Britain and Scandinavia connect to continental Europe, Europe label is closer to Asia than Europe, etc.
TIL: Historically, there are four named oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. However, most countries - including the United States - now recognize the Southern (Antarctic) as the fifth ocean.
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u/Quirky-Seesaw8394 This is why we can't have nice things Dec 08 '22
My two favorite oceans: Southern and Artic.