Thread: We think we have it bad...Pluto cease to exist.

Pluto Is No Longer a Planet, Astronomers Say

By William J. Kole
Associated Press
Thursday, August 24, 2006; 9:46 AM

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is -- and isn't -- a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

Although astronomers applauded after the vote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell -- a specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings -- urged those who might be "quite disappointed" to look on the bright side.

"It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called 'planet' under which the dwarf planets exist," she said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella.

The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.

For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun -- "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.

It was unclear how Pluto's demotion might affect the mission of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a 961/27-year journey to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets.

The decision at a conference of 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries was a dramatic shift from just a week ago, when the group's leaders floated a proposal that would have reaffirmed Pluto's planetary status and made planets of its largest moon and two other objects.

That plan proved highly unpopular, splitting astronomers into factions and triggering days of sometimes combative debate that led to Pluto's undoing.

Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, has nicknamed Xena.

Charon, the largest of Pluto's three moons, is no longer under consideration for any special designation.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv.../pluto935.html

It is amazing what these people will do to get grant money!

Poor Pluto. What about all the people that live there?

It is amazing what these people will do to get grant money!

Well, that is true. Just remember though, each time there's a discovery or or breakthrough, science as we knew it gets rewritten to accommodate what we now know (or think we know right? ).

Hubby and I saw this "contraversy" on the Science (or was it Discovery) Channel (yes, we are nerds) a couple months back. Had no idea that (relatively) so soon afterwards the International Astronomical Union would make their decision one way or the other.

Poor Pluto. What about all the people that live there?

Will the refugee Pluto-nians be welcome in America?? Will they be granted Temporary status, immune to deportation, and be eligible for Permanent Resident Status? Are they skilled and well educated, or will they be a drag on the economy and society? Will they learn English and assimilate, or will they retain their own language and segregate themselves? Will the federal government screen them for criminal background and dangerous contagious diseases? So many questions - so few answers.

I'm frankly disappointed at this turn of events, having accepted Pluto as a real planet since I first learned science 45 years ago. Granted, it was a not an industrialized society, more a "third world" economy from what we knew of it. But gosh, this revisionist science, much like revisionist history, is a scary thing

You had me worried there for a minute, I thought something had happened to Mickey's dog.
On a different note here the planet Mars will be closer to the earth this month and will be able to seen with the naked eye and will be the closest on the 27th of this month. I heard it will appear as large as the moon and should be visable from now until soom time after this month. They say this will not happen again until the year 2287 so if you don't want to wait that long you best see it now.
From what I have read it should be near where the moon comes up so watch the eastern sky at around ten o'clock or later.

Thanks for the info MD! I'm definitely going to take pictures. Hopefully they'll come out good.