Planet Debate Heats Up (ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE)

Sky Tonight ^ | August 18, 2006 | Richard Tresch Fienberg

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

All hell broke loose today as astronomers began openly debating the definition of "planet" at the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague, Czech Republic. About 100 planetary scientists — and just as many interested onlookers from other disciplines — met to discuss the definition that was proposed earlier this week (see our August 16th story and Robert Naeye's blog) and that is scheduled for an up-or-down vote among all 2,500 attendees at the assembly next Thursday, August 24th.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I guess since none of these guys has a chance at going on a date any time soon

I did notice that none of them will be doing endorsements for "Hair Club for Men" anytime this millenium.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Thanks, nice pix.

[cripplecreek]

Well if you ask me, Spiderman was more man than Superman ever could be. Spidey knew he could be killed but he still went out to fight crime. That took courage, Superman knew he was pretty much invincible so crime fighting was a no risk occupation.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

A 4-inch refracting telescope is the weapon of choice between astronomers.

The take-away message: "Don't bring a Schmitt-Cassigrain to a refractor fight."

[wbill]

A 4-inch refracting telescope is the weapon of choice between astronomers ...LOL!

My wife refers to the annual computer convention that we have here at work as 'Dorkfest'. I think that name would be appropriate here, as well.

[Abathar]

I picture pocket protectors flying everywhere, BC glasses getting knocked off and a whole bunch of near sighted guys slapping at each other....

[longtermmemmory]

Professors can yell and scream because it really does not matter at all. Nobody will live or die based on pluto being a plannet.

[the invisib1e hand]

nothing like a few drooling scientists in a turf war.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Anything made of fluid will be spheroidal due to gravity and surface tension, in the absence of perturbing forces. I say spheroidal because any rotation will add a centrifugal potential causing an equatorial bulge, like on the Earth (or most planetary scientists belt lines, apparently). Centrifugal bulge + gravity results in an equipotential surface that is an ellipsoid of rotation. Toss in tidal forces and things get a whole lot more complicated.

I wonder if a fluid spheroid the size of Ceres would have enough gravity to overcome the tidal disruptions of Jupiter. This, it would seem to me, would add another dimension to the decision space: the local tidal distruptions of the neighborhood in which it dwells.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

They need to have the fedex "we are doomed!" guys at that conference.

[syriacus]

This would be sad. I was once a member of the Astro Society of Las Cruses. Got to sit next to Clyde Tombaugh on one occasion. He was very hunched backed and frail but still had a sharp mind. He wore a Disney Watch with of course Pluto on it!

Boy, would my husband envy you!!

My family loves Clyde!! On Clyde's birthday, we even bake cupcakes, which my husband brings to school in order to celebrate with his astronomy students. The students sent Clyde a birthday card one year...and he wrote a thank you to them.

Clyde is an American legend...an example of how people from humble backgrounds can get to unexpected places through their devotion to a field they love.

It would be a shame to "dump" his work.

[rod1]

The least they should do is call one of the news ones, Niberu.

[syriacus]

http://www.klx.com/clyde/nmsu.html

Born on Feb. 4, 1906, on a farm near Streator, Ill., Tombaugh moved with his family to a farm near Burdett, Kansas, during his high school years. He shared his father's keen amateur interest in astronomy, and when he wanted a telescope more powerful than his 2 1/4-inch Sears Roebuck model, he began grinding mirrors and making his own.

Using a hand-made 9-inch telescope, he made meticulous sketches of Jupiter and Mars and sent some of them to the Lowell Observatory. He thought he might get some advice from the professionals. Instead he was offered a job. It happened that the observatory was looking for a good amateur astronomer who could operate a new photographic telescope.

Tombaugh was hired in 1929 as a junior astronomer to join in the search for a "Planet X" beyond Neptune, a search begun in 1905 by Percival Lowell. Working through the nights in a cold, unheated dome, he made pairs of exposures of portions of the sky with time intervals of two to six days. These were scrutinized under a device called a Blink-Comparator in hopes of detecting a small shift in position of one of the hundreds of thousands of points of light -- the sign of a planet among a field of stars.

On the nights of Jan. 23 and 29, 1930, Tombaugh made two such photographs of the region of the star Delta Geminorum. On the afternoon of Feb. 18, comparing the plates with the Blink-Comparator, he detected the telltale shift of a faint, starlike image. The discovery was confirmed with subsequent observations and announced to the world on March 13, 1930.

[syriacus]

Click here for a Picture of Clyde with the telescope he made from discarded farm machinery and car parts when he was in his early 20's

[mhx]

I thought we should just say that anything Pluto's size or bigger, that's going around the Sun, is a planet. No matter what definition we pick, it's going to be arbitrary.

[colorado tanker]

That would work too.

[RightWhale]

The astrologers say this has no effect whatsoever on their trade. That is likely since astrologers do not actually observe planets and have not kept up with the precession of the equinox.

[Sofa King]

"Well, at least they know what the word "evolution" means. ;)"

The fact that scientists can't even decide how many planets there are just goes to show that this whole "other planets" house of cards is about to fall! There's no evidence of anything other than the sun, the earth, and the moon, and this stuff about there being other planets in our solar system is just a theory that so-called scientists (read: atheist spawn of Hitler) adhere to as a religion!

[Don Corleone]

I would keep Pluto on the list due to historical precedence,

Besides, he's a good friend of Mickey Mouse.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Clyde Tombaugh is rolling in his grave. His niece was my girl scout leader.