Fight for Pluto !, A Campaign to Reverse the Unjust Demotion Options

[mars loon]

Dear Friends,

Today I am extremely dissapointed that the Pluto Demoters have triumphed.

I respect their opinion, but disagree with it.

I strongly agree with Alan Stern's statement calling it "absurd" that only 424 astronomers were allowed to vote, out of some 10,000 professional astronomers around the globe.

This tiny group is clearly not at all representative by mathematics alone.

I believe we should formulate a plan to overturn this unjust decision and return Pluto to full planetary status, and as the first member of a third catagory of planets, Xena being number two. Thus a total of 10 Planets in our Solar System

Please respond if you agree that Pluto should be restored as a planet.

ken

Ken Kremer
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton
Program Chairman

[Alan Stern]

What utter nonsense from Jewitt & Luu. They know that Lenard suggested in 1930, no less, that
Pluto was one of a larger population out there. They also know that people did do searches for both
planets and planetoids, all through from the 30s to the 70s (ending with Kowal's survey that found
the first Centaur, 2060 Chiron).

J&L also don't seem to recognize that Pluto's discovery foretold not just the KB but also an important
new class of planets- dwarf planets.

[David]

What utter nonsense from Jewitt & Luu. They know that Lenard suggested in 1930, no less, that
Pluto was one of a larger population out there. They also know that people did do searches for both
planets and planetoids, all through from the 30s to the 70s (ending with Kowal's survey that found
the first Centaur, 2060 Chiron).

J&L also don't seem to recognize that Pluto's discovery foretold not just the KB but also an important
new class of planets- dwarf planets.

I'm very surprised to hear that Pluto was considered "the last planet". I did not live at the time Pluto was discovered, but my impression was that as soon as Pluto was discovered, the hunt was on for "the tenth planet" -- people wanted to find additional planets out there. Certainly, by my childhood (several decades ago now), the possibility of finding a tenth planet was much discussed.

Having spent much of my life anticipating the discovery of a "tenth planet" (only to be repeatedly disappointed), I was very excited by the discovery of Eris; and much let down to have it ruled "not a planet" by virtue of semantic legerdemain. That is an emotional rather than a scientific reaction; but in a dispute so largely devoid of scientific criteria, I see no reason why it should not be taken into account.