Pluto demoted
by John at 8/24/2006 12:36:00 PM
Pluto is no longer a planet. I don't know yet whether a definition of "planet" has been or will be asserted, other than this lame one: "The eight planets are Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune" that passed by a hand vote at the IAU meeting in Prague today.
I don't care whether Pluto is a planet or not - I wanted the astronomers to define planet in a meaningful way that would allow us to specify whether newly discovered bodies were planets or not, rather than making ad hoc decisions on planetary status.
Update: Huzzah! "The IAU said in a statement on Thursday that the definition for planet is now officially 'a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.'"
I don't care whether Pluto is a planet or not - I wanted the astronomers to define planet in a meaningful way that would allow us to specify whether newly discovered bodies were planets or not, rather than making ad hoc decisions on planetary status.
Update: Huzzah! "The IAU said in a statement on Thursday that the definition for planet is now officially 'a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.'"
