Thursday, August 24, 2006

Pluto, say it ain't so!


I could not believe what I read today about scientist deciding that Pluto is not a planet anymore. The article states that
"the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930."
I am a little shocked that this is happening. I admit that throughout history our concepts of everything around us has changed and we have needed to adjust to it like the earth is round instead of flat. I just hope that they did not rush the decision without having more information. It took scientists this long to agree on the criteria for classifying planets. But in the meantime we have a probe going out to Pluto to study it further which may tell us a lot more about it. The decision could have waited until we found out a little bit more about the former 9th planet in our solar system.
The new definition for a planet is:
"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."

It would be really ironic that in 10 or 12 years from now scientists come back to say that with the new information about Pluto, it really is a planet.

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