Posted on 08/25/2006 10:52:01 AM PDT by neverdem
Pluto got its walking papers yesterday.
Throw away the place mats. Redraw the classroom charts. Take a pair of scissors to the solar system mobile.
After years of wrangling and a week of debate, astronomers voted for a sweeping reclassification of the solar system. In what many of them described as a triumph of science over sentiment, Pluto was demoted to the status of a “dwarf planet.”
In the new solar system as defined by the International Astronomical Union, meeting in Prague, there are eight planets instead of nine, at least three dwarf planets and tens of thousands of so-called smaller solar system bodies, like comets and most asteroids.
For now, the other dwarf planets are Ceres, the largest asteroid, and an object known as 2003 UB 313, nicknamed Xena, that is larger than Pluto and, like it, orbits beyond Neptune in a zone of icy debris known as the Kuiper Belt. But there are dozens more potential dwarf planets known in that zone, planetary scientists say, and so the number in the category could quickly swell.
In a nod to Pluto’s fans, the astronomers declared it to be the prototype for a new category of such “trans-Neptunian” objects, but declined in a close vote to approve the name “plutonians” for them.
The outcome yesterday completed a stunning turnaround from only a week ago, when the assembled astronomers were presented a proposal that would have increased the number of planets in the solar system to 12, retaining Pluto and adding Ceres, Xena and even Pluto’s moon Charon.
The reversal, said Dr. Alan P. Boss, a planetary theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, speaks to the integrity of the planet defining process.
“The officers were willing to change their resolution,” Dr. Boss said, “and find something that would stand up...”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Of interest to homeschoolers...
Also here's a link from an FR homeschooler to a blog with more about Pluto's demotion: Click here.
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screw it, I'm cancelling my vacation to Pluto.
How's Titan this time of year?
Now they'll have to rewrite all the science texts and sell them to the schools so the kids have the lastest and greatest until the next major change in science comes along. Hmmm, maybe I should buy stock in the textbook companies....
This just in: indigo is no longer a color - Roy G. Bv
Hey, I went to public schools and they taught me Pluto IS a real planet.
what happened to Pluto? Spike Feresten has the video:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pluto+spike+feresten&search=Search
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