Pluto Could Lose Planet Status

PhysOrg.com ^ | 21 June 2006 | Staff

[PatrickHenry]

At its conference this August, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) will make a decision that could see Pluto lose its status as a planet.

For the first time, the organisation will be officially defining the word "planet", and it is causing much debate in the world of astronomy.

There is only one thing that everyone seems to agree on: there are no longer nine planets in the Solar System.

The debate has been brought to a head by the discovery of a potential 10th planet, temporarily named 2003 UB313 in January 2005. This new candidate planet is bigger than Pluto.

The question now facing the IAU is whether to make this new discovery a planet.

Pluto is an unusual planet as it is made predominantly of ice and is smaller even than the Earth's Moon.

There is a group of astronomers that are arguing for an eight-planet SolarSystem, with neither Pluto or 2003 UB313 making the grade as a planet; but a number of astronomers are arguing for a more specific definition of a planet.

One of these; Kuiper Belt researcher Dr Marc Buie, of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, has come up with a clear planetary definition he would like to see the IAU adopt.

I believe the definition of planet should be as simple as possible, so I've come up with two criteria," he said.

"One is that it can't be big enough to burn its own matter - that's what a star does. On the small end, I think the boundary between a planet and not a planet should be, is the gravity of the object stronger than the strength of the material of the object? That's a fancy way of saying is it round?"

This definition could lead to our Solar System having as many as 20 planets, including Pluto, 2003 UB313, and many objects that were previously classified as moons or asteroids.

One possible resolution to the debate is for new categories of planet to be introduced. Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars would be "rocky planets". The gas-giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune would be a second category.

Whatever the outcome of this debate there is only one thing that we can be certain of; by September 2006 there will no longer be just nine planets in our Solar System.

[Erasmus]

And RAM. And disk. And GHz. And bandwidth. And Pixels.

[DustyMoment]

Pluto Could Lose Planet Status

Should we take up a collection to help Pluto maintain its status?? Is there a license or something that has to be renewed?

[SW6906]

Sheesh! You're right, but there's a character limit on the tagline! ;o)

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Can we throw Kerry out of the Solar System?

[Erasmus]

What do we call a planet that's not orbiting a star? Is it still a planet?

From the origin of the word, even more so.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Some small stars orbit a larger star or stars, and yet they are stars rather than planets. The currently closest star which isn't the Sun to Earth, Proxima is a small star orbiting two larger stars who have a sort of insular binary system between them.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

in English, at least American English, Earth's moon is the Moon. Also, the Solar System is the Solar System (not the Sol system) and the Sun is the Sun (not Sol).

[Tanniker Smith]

I always thought that "Planet X" was a cool name, particularly before they found the thing. They knew it had to be there from the gravitational effects, which is also why they used to think that Pluto was much bigger than it really is.

"Planet X" has it all: mystery, science and it's the Roman numeral for 10, and planets all have Roman names anyway.

Of course, according to ALF, the universe already named it Dave. Or it might've been Alvin.

TS

[Disambiguator]

This means I have to get a new moonbat non-sequitur bumper sticker: "US out of solar system".

[<1/1,000,000th%]

According to the 1966 episode, "cybermen were from Earth’s twin planet, Mondas, which evolved along similar lines to our world but drifted away from us and into deep space millennia ago."

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"Planet X" has it all: mystery, science and it's the Roman numeral for 10, and planets all have Roman names anyway.

Only because we don't use the Greek names in English. Then they'd be; Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Zeus, Cronos, Ouranos, Poseidon and Hades.

[xp38]

What!?

[Tanniker Smith]

Right, and that would just be silly. We'd have Hermes astronuats and Cronos V rockets. And then we'd have to call it Planet Chi or something.

TS
(And then instead of all the clip art of Pluto(tm), we'd have clip are of Chia Pets.)

[Tanniker Smith]

And the Intergalactic Union of Planets will be meeting to decide whether or not to move Earth from its Official Listing of Planent Dominated by Intelligent Lifeforms to its Official Listing of Planent Inhabited by Intelligent Lifeforms (if only for the dolphins, of course).

[Lou L]

When I was a boy, I remember dinosaurs called "Brontosauruses." Palentologists apparently got bored and renamed them, as I recall. You don't hear so much about brontosauruses any more. Pluto must be undergoing the same wrath. It's job security for astronomers, I suppose.

[Mr. Lucky]

Uranus is gaseous?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Pluto's an undocumented planet. Just doing the rotating around the Sun that our Solar System other planets won't do.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

How'd they explain how the people didn't freeze as they drifted away from the Sun in the storyline?

[OB1kNOb]

Hey, Pluto! Don't let the door hit Uranus on the way out!