[X] My Assistant

[MizarKey]

One of many articles regarding the upcoming conference...

Experts meet to decide Pluto fate

[dvandorn]

I think that the concept of "planet" has really nothing to do with the scientific hierarchical classification system. As far as that goes, I think we have five major classifications -- ISSRO's (Inner Solar System Rocky Objects), GGO's (Gas Giant Objects), IGO's (Ice Giant Objects), KBO's (Kuiper Belt Objects) and OCO's (Oort Cloud Objects). A separate set of classifications can be applied to moons of these objects.

I will restate, though, that when an average citizen of the Earth asks "What are the planets?" he/she is asking something similar to "What's the layout and population of my town?" They don't want to gain new scientific insights into the Solar System, they want a number and a set of names they can wrap their minds around, feel comfortable with, and go out armed with the knowledge that they at least know the basic layout of their own little corner of the Universe.

For example, there was a time when the population of a town was only expressed in the number of adult white males that lived there. Then women and minorities made it clear that they needed to be counted, and so the concept of what made up the census of people in a given place changed. What we're arguing about here is similar to the little old lady who complains that the census says she lives alone, when she actually lives with her fourteen cats, and she demands that the cats be counted in...

In other words, your average person, in my humble opinion, doesn't care about the fine scientific distinctions. They want to know the names of the streets in their neighborhood, the names of the families that live nearby, and where City Hall, the grocery store and the shopping mall are located. They don't want (or need) to have their "naming of things" stretched out to include detailed numeric representations of every street, path, walkway, sidewalk, and alley, nor do they have any need to know the names of every cat, dog, gerbil and flea that lives near them. If you give them such a detailed accounting, they will simply ignore it. They will know it exists, but they just won't care.

I think that's why this whole issue with Pluto is getting some people energized. They don't really care why something is named a planet or some other thing, they want to know the equivalent of the street names in their town and where their friends and acquaintances live. They want to know the names of, and a little about, the "places" in our Solar System, and if that list grows from 9 to 256,347, they're going to ask for (and get!) a list of just those places they ought to consider "important."

In the end, it's that list they ask for -- the one that defines the "important" places in the solar system -- that will be the list of the "planets." At least, it will be the only list that anyone beyond a small handful of scientists will ever memorize or feel that they "know"...

-the other Doug