Astronomer upset at new planet proposal

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

PASADENA, Calif. - Few planet hunters stand to gain as much as Michael Brown if our solar system balloons to 12 planets under a new definition. He's spotted more than a dozen objects that might qualify as planets.

So why is he upset?

"When I was a kid, planets were special," he said. "This definition takes the magic out of the solar system."

It was Brown's discovery of an icy rock bigger than Pluto that helped lead astronomers to rethink their definition of what a planet is. But Brown doesn't think his discovery — or even Pluto, which was spotted in 1930 — should qualify as true planets.

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[SharonBell]

Damn. Now I have to get a new solar system mobile!  Either that or keep changing the ice cubes hanging past Pluto! 

[Geoff_N]

When Sedna was discovered, although smaller than Pluto, it was called a planet by many. Children in Australia were taught there were 10 planets in the Solar System. English children would have had that marked wrong in their examinations! if teh current proposals are accepted, all the science textbooks have to be revised - and so they should.

Geoff

[Ed]

I saw something about this planetary debacle on TV a couple weeks ago.  The experts haven't been able to agree on the definition of a planet yet, and it's not as easy as you might think to define one.  For instance, Pluto has generally been accepted as being a planet since early in the last century, but Jupiter has moons that are bigger than Pluto, so are they planets, too?  How big has a lump of matter got to be before it's considered to be a planet?  Does it have to be spherical?  Does it have to be solid rock, or could it be a big snowball?

It's strange to think people are still finding huge lumps of matter in our solar system that are bigger than Pluto, isn't it?   

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

Teachers say pluto's downgrade teachable

OMAHA, Neb. - Pluto may be no more than a distant, icy rock in the minds of international scientists who stripped it of planethood. But the dwarf planet's downgrade is creating a teachable moment in classrooms nationwide. So some museums have to adjust exhibits and publishers update text while other scientists protest to keep the puny rock a planet.

That's just science, many teachers said Friday at a regional meeting of the National Science Teachers Association.

"Pluto's still the same Pluto," said Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the NSTA. "It's still up there doing exactly the same thing."

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