Pluto a Planet Again? It May Happen This Year

[Panich52]

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Pluto a Planet Again? It May Happen This Year - The Crux

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, and NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will arrive there on March 6.

Pluto is the largest object in the Kuiper belt, and NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will arrive there on July 15.

These two events will make 2015 an exciting year for solar system exploration and discovery. But there is much more to this story than mere science. I expect 2015 will be the year when general consensus, built upon our new knowledge of these two objects, will return Pluto and add Ceres to our family of solar system planets.

The efforts of a very small clique of Pluto-haters within the International Astronomical Union (IAU) plutoed Pluto in 2006. Of the approximately 10,000 internationally registered members of the IAU in 2006, only 237 voted in favor of the resolution redefining Pluto as a “dwarf planet” while 157 voted against; the other 9,500 members were not present at the closing session of the IAU General Assembly in Prague at which the vote to demote Pluto was taken. Yet Pluto’s official planetary status was snatched away.

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[Sherman A1]

1. I support the Planet Pluto

and never accepted it's demotion to Junior Planet Status.

[customerserviceguy]

2. It spent time in the Planetary Penalty Box. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

7. So you're okay with having several thousand planets, then?

If Pluto is a "planet" then so are a messload of other Kuiper belt objects. Starting with Eris, which is larger than pluto.

People simply need to get over the fact that the little 9 styrofoam ball solar system they learned about in school doesnt apply anymore.

[Sherman A1]

10. I am all for it

why would you not be?

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Because I actually think the distinction that NDGT made in 2005 or so made perfect sense.

Obviously there is a large class of objects out there that are fairly different than the ecliptical plane, circular orbit-clearing big 8.

I mean, at the end of the day pluto or eris or sedna or ceres or makemake or haumea dont care WHAT label we give them. But for simplicity's sake "planet" has a particular meaning and clarifying that was probably long overdue.

i admit to having another sort of personal dog in this hunt (little Pluto joke there) because as someone who is deeply enamored with the idea of science, the method of science, I LIKE the idea of upsetting people's old cherished apple cart interpretations of reality in favor of new data, and i probably have a reflexive aversion to things which sound like special pleading (Pluto should remain "a planet" out of some emotional bias toward the thing, not any objective consistent criteria etc)

[Sherman A1]

15. I completely understand your point of view

I however, will remain with my emotional bias toward the thing, skipping the objective consistent criteria as I really don't need it.

Pluto = Planet in my opinion and I reject the NDGT's decision of whatever year they made their change.

Just as I have rejected the decision of the NDGT, you are more than free to reject my opinion.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Absolutely.

Whatever the label, I'm excited for New Horizons to get there and see it up close in a couple months.

Edited to add: I think it was the international astronomical society or something but NDGT stands for Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who I Think was the point man for the change.

mike brown (discoverer of Eris) was probably the individual most responsible, though.

[MillennialDem]

18. At minimum Ceres should have been considered a planet long before Pluto if you want to go there.

[rhett o rick]

11. Hey, hey, now don't go telling me this: "People simply need to get over the fact that the little

9 styrofoam ball solar system they learned about in school doesnt apply anymore." I think I cried when I learned that electrons didn't really travel around atom nucleolus in nice circles (again with the styrofoam balls) and we really weren't sure where the electrons were but only probably where they where.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Exactly.

[trotsky]

23. ...

[Agnosticsherbet]

3. I support the right of Pluto to self identification.

Planatary Rights!

[Sherman A1]

5. and what are your thoughts

on the law of gravity? Personally I fully support it and am a law abiding citizen with respect to it.

[Agnosticsherbet]

6. The stairway in my house has convinced me, after falling twice,

that respect for the law of gravity is in my interest.

It was an easy sell, as I support the rule of physical laws, though I do hope that when they reconcile quantum mechanics with relativity there is a probability of change.

[FiveGoodMen]

20. Me, too!

As soon as Pluto says what it wants to be called, we should all have enough respect for the one known, talking planet-like object to follow its wishes.

Until then, those who empathize with big, icy rocks should probably see a shrink.

[Agnosticsherbet]

22. I drove the last shrink I saw crazy.

I can't imagine why.

[NaturalHigh]

4. Poor little Pluto.

It's like it has an on again-off again relationship with the IAU.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. The people who are getting emotional around this dont understand how science works.

"Pluto haters"? ...Who wrote this, the style editor from buzzfeeed?

[jimlup]

9. I agree with the decision to demote Pluto

to Dwarf planet status. It is a dwarf planet. If they decide to call it a planet again it is purely based on politics and has nothing to do with science. If Pluto becomes a planet again what about Eris which is larger?

The definition of a planet is currently consistent. If they reinstate pluto it will not be. The key part is that to be a planet the object needs to have "cleared out the debris in its orbit", Pluto has not thus it is not a planet.

[central scrutinizer]

17. " cleared out the debris in its orbit"?

Have you checked out Uranus lately for debris?

[eppur_se_muova]

19. Just a few rings, and you can barely see them. nt

[Igel]

21. There are a lot of people who think that "feel" and "think" are the same thing.

They also confuse "understand" with "sympathize with."

If we can't say what we mean, we can't mean what we bangle. Soon, five peppers unknowns light enabling anthraxy prawn.

Or, in standard English, if we can't say what we mean, we can't mean what we say. Soon, anything we might say means anything.

One of my first real research papers was met with derision. The advisor I had was spot-on: Science first relies on classifications for identifying similarities and differences in a systematic and coherent way. If we fail at this task, or come up with the wrong classifications, we overlook important differences and similarities. Then our analysis misses much of what needs to be covered. If we fail to even attempt to categorize, we're left with scores or hundreds (or thousands) of categories, and our data are atomistic and can't be generalized over. At that point nothing useful can be said except, "There are a heck of a lot of data points. Gee ...".

[BlueJazz]

13. I want Pluto to return to it's former glory simply because Clyde William Tombaugh is known for

...discovering the little planet with equipment that is (now) primitive. (My hobby is astrophotography)

I use equipment now that would find something like Pluto fairly easy. I "see" stuff that's 6-9 times fainter and harder to find plus being able to video tape anything.

The main reason is just Romantic. It's not scientific, I know.