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IAU Rules Pluto Still a Planet
scottyscout writes "NPR reports that Pluto has dodged a bullet.
An international panel has unanimously recommended that Pluto retain its title as a planet,
and it may be joined by other undersized objects that revolve around the sun.
Some astronomers had lobbied for reclassifying Pluto as its so tiny. And at least one major
museum has excluded Pluto from its planetary display. But sources tell NPR that under the
proposal, to be presented at a big meeting of astronomers in Prague next week for a vote,
Pluto would become part of a new class of small planets and several more objects could be
granted membership."
According to wikipedia:
-Earth's Diameter: 12,756.274 km
-Pluto's Diameter: 2306±20 km
-Jupiter's Diameter: 142,984 km
-Proportion of Earth to Pluter: 12756.274 / 2306 = 5.531
-Proportion of Jupiter to Earth: 142984 / 12756.274 = 11.209
Hmm... Jupiter has over twice the proportional difference with Earth as Earth has with Pluto. So I guess Jupiter wouldn't really consider Earth a real planet.
Personally, I think we should leave the little guy alone. Throw UB313 in there as well. Just give it a cool name that fits in with that whole "my very educated mother..." thing.
Like the well learned and professional scientist said: "We'll call them dwarf planets or something".
--
"A man is asked if he is wise or not. He replies that he is otherwise" ~Mao Zedong
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
... mickey, minnie, donald.
In other news, Pixar announces corporate sponsorship of IAU.
Really now...this has already been settled! Pluto is a Class C Geoinactive planet I mean sheesh.....
People will debate Pluto's class until the end of the solar system. This is not a new story, in the sense that this is not the first time Pluto's status has been discussed. I think it should just be grandfathered in, if anything. Plus we have a bunch of other objects out there that could be considered planets too. Sedna, Xena, Quaoar, Varuna, Ixion... what do we do with those?
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
Because there's nothing the scientific community loves more than controversy, and this is beginning to rival the great Newton vs. Einstein debate, where some purists were not convinced that Einstein's theories were realistic. Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto back in 1930 after a systematic search for planets beyond Neptune. He had to pore through photographic plates, trying to find the tiniest relative shift of an object in the starfield that would lead him to a body that was orbiting the Sun. That he found Pluto was remarkable for the time, and I think all this debate over Pluto's status is a disservice to him. Let sleeping dogs lie, let Pluto remain one of the original nine planets, and let's move on.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
The real problem with Pluto is that it makes Uranus look huge.
The panel's recommendation is being reviewed by the International Astronomical Union's executive committee. In an interview last week, executive committee member Bob Williams said the definition proposed by the panel had some potential problems, and he was not at all sure if the astronomers voting in Prague this month would approve it.
"At this point, I don't feel confident enough to bet in favor of it," he said.
If fate makes you a motorcycle, you become a motorcycle.
No, actually, I (and most of the astronomers in my peer group) do NOT enjoy the ongoing saga. We would like the whole matter to go away.
The real answer is
Editors know that "telling people that stuff they learned in elementary school is wrong" can pull emotional strings and get a rise out of some people ... and
that leads to profit.
Sigh.
Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger."
mwrsps@rit.edu http://stupendous.rit.edu
Pluto has a highly elliptical, out-of-plane orbit that crosses over Neptune's orbit, AND its orbit is 3/2 in phase with Neptune, suggesting that it was captured by Neptune's gravity.
Not quite, Pluto actually formed in the original Kuiper Belt, making it part of the original Solar System, not an object captured by Neptune. Its current orbit is the result of Neptune's gravity, yes, but Pluto was formed in orbit of the sun.
Is a "planet" something that was created with the solar system, or is a "planet" simply something that has a moon? Right now, we're using the latter definition.
Actually, neither Mercury nor Venus have moons, yet they're accepted as planets. The problem is not that an "incorrect" definition of planet is being used, it's that there is no clear definition of what constitutes a planet. This recommendation (the title is misleading, as no actual ruling was handed down) is merely part of a much larger debate on the definition of a planet.
No, the overwhelming majority of astronomers were not. We don't care. Really. The issue "what is a planet?" has for most of us the same urgency and relevance that "what is a continent?" has for geologists.
There certainly _are_ topics on which there is vigorous debate in the astronomical community -- for example, the nature of gamma-ray bursts, or the accuracy and precision of the cosmological distance scale, or the physics of supernova explosions. But this isn't one of them. The issue exists solely because a very few people who (for some reason) are seeking publicity go to the media periodically with a "new twist" on this question.
Adding the question "is Pluto a planet" to the list of serious astronomical questions of the day does a disservice to those other questions.
Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger."
mwrsps@rit.edu http://stupendous.rit.edu
Any object maneuverable enough to dodge a bullet can't possibly be considered a planet.
KeS