What is the matter with scientific community? When I was a little girl (about 19 years ago in Kindergarten), I was taught that Pluto was a planet. Not a dwarf planet, a planet! It seems disrespectful to change it's status. Maybe i'm old fashioned and stubborn, but I was taught that Pluto was a planet and that is the way it is going to remain in my eyes, regardles of the scientific communities opinion.
Wikipedia describes a dwarf planet as thus:
A dwarf planet is a category of celestial bodies in the solar system defined in a resolution passed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on August 24, 2006. The definition currently applies only to the Sun's solar system.[1] It applies only to the English language, and terminology may differ in other languages. In the usage approved by the IAU, the category "dwarf planet" is distinct from that of "planet" and also from another new category, "Small Solar System Body".
The resolution describes a dwarf planet as an object that:
It differs from the definition of the planet in that the dwarf planet has not cleared its orbital neighbourhood. This definition reclassified Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet because it has not cleared the neighbourhood of its orbit (the Kuiper Belt).
Pluto along with Ceres and Xena are classified as dwarf planets.
Here is wikipedia's definition of a planet:
The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the official scientific body for astronomical nomenclature, defines "planet" as a celestial body that:[1][2]
- (a) is in orbit around a star or stellar remnants;
- (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape;
- (c) is not massive enough to initiate thermonuclear fusion of deuterium in its core; and,
- (d) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
You can tell how thoroughly pissed I am. Pluto deserves its spot with the planets. I am so angry that they have demoted Pluto to a mere dwarf planet. Next they'll be changing Uranus' name. *sigh* Oh well. I guess we can't expect much.
Blessings
Serenity
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Second, we know almost nothing of the universe outside of our own solar system.
Third, the IAU has been around since 1919 and it is their job (remember, these are the internationally recognized experts in the field of astronomy) to name and define all celestial objects.
And lastly, there is nothing old fashioned about your opinion, people have been resisting change since the beginning of civilization.
So what if you were told so many years ago in school that some hunk of cold dead rock floating out there was a planet, and now its not. We were also told that Columbus "discovered" America, despite the fact that Leif Ericson did it 400 years earlier or the fact that the Indians had been there for tens of thousands of years.
Pluto has been reclassified as a dwarf planet for now, that is all we need to know. Accept it and move on.
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