Philosophy
"The IAU confirms three requirements for planet status: the object must orbit around the sun directly; it has to be big enough so its gravity squeezes into a ball; and it has to have cleared out most other objects in its orbit."
Maybe those criteria need to be changed.
by
Hope Babowice
January 6th, 2014
Daily Herald
New rules are announced all the time for things like professional sports, driving and politics. Astronomy is no different. In fact, new rules are the reason why Pluto, which had planet status from 1930 to 2006, was demoted to the lesser level of trans-Neptunian object.
"When scientists sharpened the definition of a planet, they realized that Pluto has a lot more in common with the 'Trans-Neptunian objects' than the regular planets," said Dr. Geza Gyuk, director of astronomy at Chicago's Adler Planetarium.
In the early 1900s, a miscalculation led scientists to believe there was something beyond the eight planets in our solar system, so they scoured the skies to locate and identify this mysterious planet. Dubbed Planet X, this space object was presumably the cause of discrepancies in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus, causing them to tug or weave outside of a predictable orbit.
Percival Lowell, the benefactor for the Lowell Observatory at the University of Arizona in Flagstaff, hoped the discovery of Planet X would resolve the unexplained variations.
New on the job in 1930, Clyde W. Tombaugh, a 23-year-old astronomer at the Lowell Observatory, examined photos taken over time and quickly realized that beyond Neptune, an oversized space object existed at the outer reaches of our universe. He named it Pluto.
"When they found Pluto, it was natural to consider it a planet," Gyuk explained. "As it turns out, the measurements of Neptune's orbit were incorrect. There weren't any unexplained tugs after all, and Pluto turned out to be vastly less massive than originally thought."
This and other data led scientists to develop new rules for defining planets.
"In the 1990s and early 2000s, astronomers started discovering a whole bunch of other objects out there that were a lot like Pluto — strange orbits, about the same size, etc.," Gyuk said. "But all of these couldn't be planets, could they?"
The International Astronomical Union, or IAU, is the authority that names and identifies objects in the solar system. The IAU confirms three requirements for planet status: the object must orbit around the sun directly; it has to be big enough so its gravity squeezes into a ball; and it has to have cleared out most other objects in its orbit.
"The eight major planets fall into this definition," Gyuk said. "The asteroids don't, even if some are large enough to the spherical. Pluto and its gang share similar orbits so they aren't planets. Instead, the IAU has classified them as dwarf planets."
- More On Pluto And Classification
Ms. Kornfeld...do read and check out the link [fourth essay listed] provided in the body of this essay. Don't let the math bother you. "Picking Planets from Potatoes" Poor Pluto: Number of Dwarf Planets Increases April 24th, 2010 Astrobiology Magazine...
- Alas Poor Pluto, I Knew Him Well
"Poor Pluto: Number Of Dwarf Planets Increases" April 26th, 2010 SPACE DAILY New research from the Australian National University has further reduced the status of Pluto by suggesting there are many more dwarf planets in the Solar System than previously...
- Pluto's Day
Not the pup but the planet[?] Pluto popped into the planet ensemble on March 13th. "Happy Pluto Discovery Day" by Doug Cornelius March 10th, 2010 Wired The discovery of Pluto was announced on March 13. Pluto was labeled a planet when it was first...
- Pluto Fizzled At Iau's Rio Meeting
The IAU's Rio meeting never discussed the sensitive issue of Pluto's status. "Pluto still not a planet after astronomy meeting" by Dan Vergano August 13th, 2009 USA Today An international astronomy meeting ended Thursday in Rio de Janeiro,...
- Pluto="plutoid"
Pluto Does this satisfy everyone now? ""Plutoids": the new name for Pluto-like dwarf planets" by Jon Cartwright June 12th, 2008 physicsworld.com Pluto sub-classification The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has decided that Pluto — and other...
Philosophy
Sayonara planet Pluto
Tova Hagler, 10, left, reads through the names of the planets with her brother, Yaakov, 5, as they walk through the Scales of the Universe exhibit at the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Pluto was considered a planet from 1930 to 2006, but is now classified as a trans-Neptunian object.
"The IAU confirms three requirements for planet status: the object must orbit around the sun directly; it has to be big enough so its gravity squeezes into a ball; and it has to have cleared out most other objects in its orbit."
Maybe those criteria need to be changed.
"New rules mean Pluto is no longer a planet"
by
Hope Babowice
January 6th, 2014
Daily Herald
New rules are announced all the time for things like professional sports, driving and politics. Astronomy is no different. In fact, new rules are the reason why Pluto, which had planet status from 1930 to 2006, was demoted to the lesser level of trans-Neptunian object.
"When scientists sharpened the definition of a planet, they realized that Pluto has a lot more in common with the 'Trans-Neptunian objects' than the regular planets," said Dr. Geza Gyuk, director of astronomy at Chicago's Adler Planetarium.
In the early 1900s, a miscalculation led scientists to believe there was something beyond the eight planets in our solar system, so they scoured the skies to locate and identify this mysterious planet. Dubbed Planet X, this space object was presumably the cause of discrepancies in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus, causing them to tug or weave outside of a predictable orbit.
Percival Lowell, the benefactor for the Lowell Observatory at the University of Arizona in Flagstaff, hoped the discovery of Planet X would resolve the unexplained variations.
New on the job in 1930, Clyde W. Tombaugh, a 23-year-old astronomer at the Lowell Observatory, examined photos taken over time and quickly realized that beyond Neptune, an oversized space object existed at the outer reaches of our universe. He named it Pluto.
"When they found Pluto, it was natural to consider it a planet," Gyuk explained. "As it turns out, the measurements of Neptune's orbit were incorrect. There weren't any unexplained tugs after all, and Pluto turned out to be vastly less massive than originally thought."
This and other data led scientists to develop new rules for defining planets.
"In the 1990s and early 2000s, astronomers started discovering a whole bunch of other objects out there that were a lot like Pluto — strange orbits, about the same size, etc.," Gyuk said. "But all of these couldn't be planets, could they?"
The International Astronomical Union, or IAU, is the authority that names and identifies objects in the solar system. The IAU confirms three requirements for planet status: the object must orbit around the sun directly; it has to be big enough so its gravity squeezes into a ball; and it has to have cleared out most other objects in its orbit.
"The eight major planets fall into this definition," Gyuk said. "The asteroids don't, even if some are large enough to the spherical. Pluto and its gang share similar orbits so they aren't planets. Instead, the IAU has classified them as dwarf planets."
- More On Pluto And Classification
Ms. Kornfeld...do read and check out the link [fourth essay listed] provided in the body of this essay. Don't let the math bother you. "Picking Planets from Potatoes" Poor Pluto: Number of Dwarf Planets Increases April 24th, 2010 Astrobiology Magazine...
- Alas Poor Pluto, I Knew Him Well
"Poor Pluto: Number Of Dwarf Planets Increases" April 26th, 2010 SPACE DAILY New research from the Australian National University has further reduced the status of Pluto by suggesting there are many more dwarf planets in the Solar System than previously...
- Pluto's Day
Not the pup but the planet[?] Pluto popped into the planet ensemble on March 13th. "Happy Pluto Discovery Day" by Doug Cornelius March 10th, 2010 Wired The discovery of Pluto was announced on March 13. Pluto was labeled a planet when it was first...
- Pluto Fizzled At Iau's Rio Meeting
The IAU's Rio meeting never discussed the sensitive issue of Pluto's status. "Pluto still not a planet after astronomy meeting" by Dan Vergano August 13th, 2009 USA Today An international astronomy meeting ended Thursday in Rio de Janeiro,...
- Pluto="plutoid"
Pluto Does this satisfy everyone now? ""Plutoids": the new name for Pluto-like dwarf planets" by Jon Cartwright June 12th, 2008 physicsworld.com Pluto sub-classification The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has decided that Pluto — and other...