Pluto Is A Planet!

[mabfan]

sdelmonte reports here that the International Astronomical Union plans to define the word "planet" in September. This may lead to the final resolution of Pluto's status, and I worry that they may decide to redefine Pluto as a non-planet. If they take away Pluto's status as a planet, I'm thinking of protesting over at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. I plan to carry a sign on a stick that says "Pluto IS a planet" and chant the following:

P-L-U!
P-L-A!
Pluto as a planet
Is here to stay!

Who wants to join me?

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I'll join you in spirit, but my protest would have to be in Chicago as I won't be able to make it to Harvard.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

"Let's burn down the observatory so this never happens again!"

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Can't. They already tore down the observatories behind the Adler Planetarium and on the Northwestern University Beach and University of Chicago just sold Yerkes Observatory to a g*ddamn developer.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you've got more problems than the redefinition of Pluto....

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Well, remember that I knew and had a long running correspondence with Clyde Tombaugh, so I sort of have a personal attachment to Pluto as a planet.

A while ago, Br. Guy Consolmagno, SJ was trying to get ideas for what intelligent laypersons thought a planet should be, so I offered a definition that would include Pluto.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Hee! I think I could be talked into that.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I need to register sp3.com if it isn't yet and find someone to set it up for me. "The Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet". We'll send out flyers and pick a day for protest. :-)

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, a whois on sp3.com shows it registered to SAPIENCE CORPORATION in Japan. :(

plutoasplanet.com, however, appears to be available, and plutoisaplanet.com doesn't come up as taken on a whois search. :)

[clauclauclaudia]

IIRC, XYZ.com is taken for *all* X, Y, Z. .org and .net have a lot more room, but in fact sp3.org/net is taken. And really, .org is more appropriate. ;-)

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Hm. I may try taking plutoisaplanet.com. Thing is, I want a nicely designed page with good content, and I don't think I have the skill set I need for what I want.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

plutoisaplanet.com was taken. However, I now am the proud owner of http://www.plutoisaplanet.org.

[desireearmfeldt]

You've heard Christine Lavin's Pluto song...?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I haven't, actually...tell me more!

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Lyrics for it are here.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I like it...

[sdelmonte]

I'm with you!

Of course, I don't look forward to having to remember the names of all the additional planets, but I can live with inclusionary astronomy.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

And do they all get new symbols? I'd enjoy that.

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

I thought you were more of a purist than a traditionalist. What are your reasons?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

More of a purist than a traditionalist? I'm curious how you got that impression. Was it something specific I said or did?

As far as Pluto is concerned, I am a traditionalist.

[lordavon.livejournal.com]

I'll march!

What's the date?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Not sure yet...

[pressburger.livejournal.com]

I will write a letter. I will not carry a placard.

[golux-org.livejournal.com]

How about "Ceres is also a planet!" and "Troublemakers for Vesta!"

After the Dawn mission visits Vesta (2011) and Ceres (2015), two of the three largest asteroids, I suspect that many people would be willing to consider these objects "planets". They're large enough to have become spherical due to the effects of gravity (although Vesta has a giant crater that kind of messes up the rounded appearance). Personally, if it were my decision, I'd say a planet is any object that (a) orbits a star, (b) does not sustain fusion, and (c) became spherical due to self-gravity.

But rabblerousing for the large rubble might not help Pluto's cause, since there seems to be astronomical opposition to reclassifying any of the largest asteroids as "planets".

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Ceres classified as a planet when it was first discovered? But then they demoted it within only a few years.

Pluto's been considered a planet for much longer. And it has a moon.

[golux-org.livejournal.com]

Ceres was classified as a planet for about 60 years. Pluto has been considered a planet for 76 years. So the length of time that these objects have lived as "planets" is comparable. In both cases, doubts about planetary status arose when it became clear that a population of objects shared the same region of space, with a smooth distribution of sizes from Ceres/Pluto down to small objects.

The classification problems are similar. In both cases, a "threshold" question arose -- if some of the objects are planets, and others are not, how do you draw the distinction? And in both cases, the first instinct was to follow tradition. When numerous asteroids were discovered (around 1850), the original "numbering system" started with Astrea, not counting the first four (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta) which were still considered planets. A few years later, the asteroid numbering system was revised to include all members of the population (including these first four), as is customary today. Something similar is seen with the TNO's -- an instinct to make the threshold historical, count Pluto as a planet, but deny planetary status to new similar objects.

Here's an interesting link on the history of asteroid classification:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/hilton/AsteroidHistory/minorplanets.html

I think Pluto is a planet because it's a spherical world that orbits the sun. And it doesn't matter what else is sharing that region of space, or what order the objects were discovered, Pluto is a planet because of what it is.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Wow. I wasn't aware of all the history of Ceres. Thanks for the information.

I have to admit that my own desire for Pluto to remain a planet is more emotional and atavistic than logical and rational, but there it is. Still, I think your final paragraph makes sense. It's spherical, it orbits the sun, it has a moon...it's a planet.

[dianora2.livejournal.com]

But if Pluto is not a planet, what will mother serve us nine of anymore? No more pies???

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I learned it as pickles.

[somehedgehog.livejournal.com]

I heard pizzas.

[madfilkentist]

This just seems like an odd thing to protest over.

I liked Jordin Kare's comment in the late 90's: "Pluto's being allowed to stay on as a planet, but they're considering a resolution of censure."

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

If one grew up with the emotional attachment to the concept of Pluto as a planet, protesting over its removal from said list makes a lot of sense. Don't forget that when the Rose Center unilaterally removed Pluto from the list of planets at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, there was a minor uproar. They had to add a plaque explaining why they did what they did.