Why the Word 'Planet' Will Never Be Defined

eldavojohn writes "What makes a planet a planet? Slashdot covered the great debate about whether or not Pluto qualified and Space.com now has up an article explaining why we'll never have the term 'planet' defined to a point that everyone can agree on. Divisions in the scientific community currently stand over whether or not it has to be in orbit around a star, the dynamics of the body in question and apparently the country you come from plays a part in it too. Some feel the United States is the dominant deciding factor on the definition but the IAU has not turned to democratizing the definition yet." From the article: "In the broadest terms, a planet could be thought of as anything from an 800-kilometer-wide (500-mile-wide) round rock orbiting a dead star to a colossal gas ball floating alone in space."

Comments

Original Meaning

[scottennis]

From Wikipedia:

In ancient times, Grecian astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky in relation to the other stars. These objects were believed to orbit the Earth, which was considered to be stationary. The "wandering" lights were called planets, a Greek term meaning "wanderer".

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Why not just stick to this original definition? If it "wanders" among the stationary celestial lights and casts light visible to the naked eye, it's a planet.

Everything else can be labeled SAO "speculative astronomical object."