Experts meet to decide Pluto fate, Finally we'll know what a 'planet' is... |
Experts meet to decide Pluto fate, Finally we'll know what a 'planet' is... |
Aug 14 2006, 06:06 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 295 Joined: 2-March 04 From: Central California Member No.: 45 |
-------------------- Eric P / MizarKey
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Aug 16 2006, 08:13 PM
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#2
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 14-June 05 From: Cambridge, MA Member No.: 411 |
I don't have a problem with roundness as a criterion, but:
1) why didn't they define an upper limit as well? The phrase "is not a star ..." is insufficient. Has the word "STAR" been defined somewhere else by the IAU? They could have said the upper limit is when a body is capable of initiating a thermonuclear reaction in its core, or that its 13 Jupiters, or whatever. Just saying "is not a star" is a cop-out. 2) They defined a planet, for better or worse. They should have left it at that! It seems most people are objecting to the "double-planet" phrase; personally I'm confused as to why they felt the need to define a "pluton". There are already definitions for things like ""plutinos", or "cubewanos", or "Kuiper objects" or "extended scattered disk" that are already in use by informal convention, and it's been working fine; there has not been any controversy about that. 3) Er, need I state the obvious? ... a planet is a "celestial" object. What does "celestial" mean? In common usage it is used to distinguish something that's not earthly. So doesn't this definition exclude Earth? (We're back down to 11 planets, LOL!) - John Sheff Cambridge, MA |
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