Archives - Astronomy: Page 22
Author: paul carson (Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:19 pm)
Title: Pluto's Demotion
The International Astronomical Union’s proposal to define a planet was: any object that orbits a star and is large enough for its own gravity to pull it into a spherical shape.
That definition is scientifically precise but led to results that offended common sense. An asteroid, a small moon, and another icy ball like Pluto would suddenly have been catapulted to planet-hood, swelling the number of planets to 12, with hordes more icy rocks likely to qualify as more was learned about them.
Fortunately, the astronomers have now added another requirement to the definition. Planets must not only be large enough to be round, they must also have cleared out the neighborhood around their orbits. Pluto would not qualify it orbits in a belt of icy debris on the edge of the solar system. Neither would an icy rock nicknamed Xena, which orbits in that same zone, nor Ceres, a big asteroid that marches in the company of other asteroids. Pluto’s moon, Charon, which had qualified under the first proposal, is also out of the running.
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grow and be kind
It is official, the planet Pluto will now be known as a "dwarf planet." I for one will still refer to it as the ninth planet in our solar system. Discovered in 1930, Pluto has been the final stop in a journey to the far ends of our solar system for 75 years. The fact that these astronomers were even considering adding three more entities to the list of planets is absurd. However, Pluto's demotion is the most absurd thing of all. For whatever reason astronomers cited for deeming Pluto a planet in the first place, I feel it is unnecessary to change the definition after all this time. In a vast and virtually unknown field such as astronomy, I believe there are more important things to discuss aside from altering the definition of a planet. We have nine planets in our solar system. They are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and PLUTO...It's name is Pluto. It is orbited by a small moon named Charon as well as two others too small to mention. It is 3,647 Million miles from the Sun. Those are the facts that matter.