It is of sad note to say that our beloved ice planet pluto did not pass the test to still be called planet



LETTER TO PLUTO

Planet Pluto no more
BY BRYN NELSON
Newsday Staff Writer

August 25, 2006


Dear Pluto,

It's nothing personal.

Honest. It's just that you were always a bit different from the other eight planets, especially in how you failed to keep your orbit, well, clean.

You're basically round, of course, and you orbit the sun, albeit in that elliptical way of yours. Yesterday's yanking of your official "planet" status by the International Astronomical Union comes down to one inconvenient truth: You weren't big enough to sweep away or incorporate your celestial neighbors, while Neptune and the others were packing on the pounds in the early millennia of our solar system. "Dwarf planet" isn't so bad, is it?

Welcome to the B-list, Pluto.

Institutions like the American Museum of Natural History have dissed you for years, but astronomers meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, looked set to solidify your place in the planetary pantheon only last week by essentially defining a planet as anything round that orbits the sun.

But then, the solar system would have at least 53 planets, taxing even the best mnemonic device. The asteroid Ceres would be one! So would your biggest moon, Charon. And Xena, too, or whatever they'll call the recently discovered sphere 2003 UB313, which is clearly bigger than you are and arguably led to your demotion.

If Pluto is a planet, astronomers maintained, so is Xena.

And now, neither of you are, after an about-face by astronomers and the new label of "dwarf planet" along with Ceres. Even Xena's co-discoverer, Mike Brown at the California Institute of Technology, conceded a downgrade was in the best interests of science.

In the spirit of change, some astronomers told Brown they like the name "Xena" and see no reason to exclude a made-for-TV warrior princess from the mythological names normally gracing celestial bodies. "If that's so, then the next one could be called 'Captain Kirk,'" Brown said.

But back to you, Pluto.

In a decision akin to naming you "Miss Congeniality," the astronomers meeting in Prague promoted you to the head of your own celestial class. Exactly what that class should be called, though, is unsettled.

"Plutonian objects" didn't pass muster, and geologists pointed out that a prior suggestion, "plutons," was taken. In the interim, you can take pride in being the grand poohbah of "trans-Neptunian objects," or those wan bodies pushed out of the way long ago by Neptune.

Put another way, Pluto, you're now king of the solar system's icy dirtballs. Not that it changes our feelings for you.

"Pluto is still a fascinating object," said Charles Liu, professor of astrophysics at the College of Staten Island and an associate astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. "We still have a spacecraft called New Horizons speeding toward it, and once it gets there, we're still going to learn new and fascinating things about the solar system."

Richard Binzel, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the meeting's planet definition committee, expressed relief that your fate has finally been decided.

And at least you fared better than Charon, which has been "sent back to committee."

Nevertheless, your absence will be keenly felt in the memorized mantras of students trying to keep their planets straight. Binzel proposed the slightly updated mnemonic device, "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos."

Will astronomers vote on it?

"I certainly hope not," he said, with an audible sigh.

Pluto, we all feel your pain.

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsplut0825,0,6806443.story?coll=ny-homepage-mezz



Pluto no longer classed as a planet

Email
Print
Normal font
Large font
August 25, 2006 - 6:19AM
Advertisement

Advertisement

Pluto was stripped of its status as a planet on Thursday when astronomers from around the world redefined it as a "dwarf planet", leaving just eight major planets in the solar system.

With one vote, toys and models of the solar system became instantly obsolete, forcing teachers and publishers to scramble to update textbooks and lessons used in classrooms for decades.

"Pluto is dead," Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology bluntly told reporters on a teleconference.

Discovered in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto has traditionally been considered the ninth planet, farthest from the sun in the solar system.

However, the definition of a planet approved after a heated debate among 2,500 scientists from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) meeting in Prague drew a clear distinction between Pluto and the other eight planets.

The need to define what is a planet was driven by technological advances enabling astronomers to look further into space and to measure more precisely the size of celestial bodies.

Brown added impetus to the decades-old debate on the definition of a planet when he discovered UB313 in 2003. Xena, as it is nicknamed, is larger than Pluto, instantly creating a buzz over whether a new planet had been discovered.

The scientists agreed that, to be called a planet, a celestial body must be in orbit around a star while not itself being a star.

It must be large enough in mass for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape and have cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

Pluto was disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's. Xena also does not make the grade of being a planet, and will also be known as a dwarf planet.

"It's an issue mainly for the public, not really for scientists. Some people may be upset, but we've long regarded it (Pluto) as a minor planet," said Richard Miller of the University of Chicago.

The new definition - the first time the IAU has tried to define scientifically what a planet is - means a second category called "dwarf planets", has been created, as well as a third category for all other objects, except satellites, known as small solar system bodies.

"We are just defining a new class of planets and I think it's very appropriate. We are finding more planets in our solar system, and some are larger than Pluto," said Philip Diamond, a professor at the University of Manchester and a delegate attending the IAU meeting.

"I think what we have done is a good thing, we have actually expanded the number of planets in our solar system, but just spread them over two categories."

From now on, traditional planets will be restricted to eight: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.


http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Pluto-no-longer-classed-as-a-planet/2006/08/25/1156012700897.html

liked the first article, funny yet gripping, poor pluto

aww now its My Very Earthly Mother Just Served Us Nachos

i thought it has been cancelled.

[url=http://Yes it is True Pluto is no more a Planet!!!!! because of Its tiny size and highly eccentric orbit precludes it from joining other planets']Yes it is True Pluto is no more a Planet!!!!! because of Its tiny size and highly eccentric orbit precludes it from joining other planets'[/url]

PRAGUE: Pluto on Thursday lost its seven-decade status as the ninth and outermost planet of the solar system.

The decision was taken at an assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), world's top astronomical body.

"The eight planets are Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune," said a resolution, passed in a raised-hands vote, which was followed a stormy debate.

Pluto's status had been contested for many years by some astronomers, who said that its tiny size and highly eccentric orbit precluded it from joining the other acknowledged planets.

The astronomers contended that the ninth rock from the sun never deserved to be a full planet in the first place.

Pluto was classified a planet because scientists initially believed it was the same size as Earth. It remained one because for years, it was the only known object in the Kuiper Belt, an enigmatic zone beyond Neptune that is teeming with comets and other planetary objects.

In 1978 Pluto was found to have a moon and it was later named Charon. The Hubble telescope turned up two more, which this past June were called Nix and Hydra.

Orbit oblong


In the1990s, powerful telescopes revealed numerous bodies similar to Pluto in the neighbourhood.

The observations also showed that Pluto's orbit was oblong, sending it soaring well above and beyond the main plane of the solar system where Earth and the other seven planets circle the sun.

That prompted some galactic grumbling from astronomers. They began openly attacking Pluto's planethood.

UB313 discovery


The movement in support of downgrading Pluto gained ground after the discovery of an object beyond Pluto's orbit, called 2003 UB313. The discoverer said UB313 was as big as Pluto and thus could lay claim to being a planet. It is unofficially known as Xena.

Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.

Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the international union's planet definition committee, had contended that Pluto met key tests of planetary physics "by a long shot" and earned its status.

Before Thursday's vote, Mr. Binzel was asked whether he would mourn Pluto.

"I don't know. Ask me later," he said. — Agencies

Served it right shouldn't have been a planet in the first place, Astronomy is crazy is a planet a big entity that orbits around some sotta star, cos if i was the president of NASA, I would say; "A planet is a solid entity in space that orbits around a star that has a diameter that is bigger than 12900KM and the entity must have a diameter that is bigger or equal to 12900km and it doesn't qualify to be a planet if it is a gas entity or doesn't have a solid crust" Take that Saturn and Jupiter, and i would declare planets that cannot support life now or in the future lesser planet making Earth and Mars the only planets that are not lesser planets, I am a firm believer that Mars can support life in the future.