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FEATURE
October 27, 2006 • THE ARROW
Pluto Demoted Amidst Controversy
After generations have come to believe that the solar system consists of nine planets, a minority of astronomers took it upon themselves to change Pluto’s classification as a planet to a “dwarf-planet.” Now, students and astronomers alike are fighting back.
JACKIE BOROWSKI
SPORTS EDITOR
that continue to intrigue and shape human
endeavors.
Where can I even begin? It is the end
of an era, the passing of an age. Society and
life as I know it has now changed forever.
For people across the globe—young and
old, rich and poor—the foundation of
their education in the stars, the planets,
the universe that surrounds our world
for billions upon billions of miles is now
based on falsehood. The most basic, most
absolute certainty of my elementary
school learning, the number of planets in
Earth’s solar system, has been dramatically
reduced from nine to eight. Pluto has been
demoted.
“Everything I learned from first grade
is a lie. I used to know a song about the
planets and now I can’t even sing it,” said
Sophie Cooper ’07.
A NEW DEFINITION
But at the 2006 meeting of the
International Astronomical Union (IAU)
it was decided that a clearer definition of
planets was necessary, either to include
more planets of equal or greater size
and orbit than Pluto, or to exclude Pluto
from the planet category and demote it
to a planet sub-category, such as “transNeptunian.”
The proposal to maintain Pluto as a
planet would include adding other planets
similar in size and character to Pluto -such as Ceres, Pluto’s moon (Charon) and
the newly discovered celestial body now
named Eris -- to bring the planet total to
12.
Asia Hwan ’07 is particularly in favor
of keeping Pluto. “Just because it’s small
doesn’t mean that it hasn’t impacted my
life,” she said.
RELICS OF A BY-GONE ERA
The definition of a planet in the past
was quite ambiguous, or to be more
specific, nonexistent. The planets were
accepted, as universally as the laws of
gravity and the spherical nature of Earth
simply because they had been discovered
and accepted as planets for centuries with
little actual classification. They were a
relic of the scientific pursuits of the ancient
Greeks and Romans, our planets even
taking the names of Roman Gods. The
planets are a legacy that has lasted two
millennia, a staple of the natural sciences
A POSSIBLE DEMOTION
The alternate proposal aimed to find
an acceptable title for Pluto, a planet much
smaller than all the rest, with a diameter
of only 1,600 miles and an orbit that, for
20 of its 248-year cycle around the sun, is
inside the much larger orbit of Neptune.
Pluto has, since its initial classification,
been somewhat controversial due to that
last characteristic. All other planets have
completely secluded orbits whereas Pluto
crosses the orbit of its closest neighbor,
Neptune. The creation of a true definition
of the term planet, and the eventual
outcome of the vote that established it as
international truth, would bring the planet
count down to eight. Pluto, classified as
a planet in 1930, has been the only planet
discovered since the 1846 discovery and
classification of Neptune. Thus, the glory
of nearly a century’s worth of hard work
and exploration has been undone in mere
months.
THE VOTES ARE COUNTED
However, despite the controversial
act of eliminating a planet from our solar
system, it was unanimously decided by
all attendees of the IAU convention that
a new definition of planet was necessary.
The final classification that was agreed
upon identified a planet as: 1) orbiting
the sun, 2) being large enough for gravity
to squash it into a round ball, and 3) as
having cleared other objects out of the way
of its orbital neighborhood.
With the new definition, the third point
in particular, Pluto was officially demoted
to the category of “dwarf-planet” along
with Ceres and Eris; the only necessary
characteristic to be a dwarf-planet is that
it must be round. The solar system is now
also destined to include, besides its eight
planets and three dwarf-planets, thousands
of comets and asteroids, classified as
“smaller solar system bodies.” Due to the
loose definition of dwarf-planet as simply
a round body, it is highly likely that this
classification will grow immensely, further
reducing Pluto’s significance.
THE CONTROVERSY BEGINS ANEW
Of the 2,400 astronomers registered
at the IAU conference, only between 400
and 500 remained for the Pluto vote. This
lack of representation of a majority of the
scientific community has led to much
controversy over the results of the vote.
A group of over 300 planetary scientists
and astronomers have signed a petition
finding flaw in the definition of a planet as
set by the IAU and also in the way that the
definition was finalized. Although another
meeting of the IAU will not occur until
2009, it is likely that the debate will rage
quite heatedly until then with scientists
and ordinary citizens alike fighting to keep
a scientific certainty they have known and
trusted all their lives.
PLUTO STILL EXISTS
Regardless of the final outcome of the
numerous meetings and conferences that
are sure to convene on Pluto’s fate, even
if our beloved Pluto is reduced to nothing,
even if in a hundred years it is no more
remembered than the millions of ordinary
asteroids and comets, in the hearts of
students and adults who grew up with
Pluto in its rightful position as the final
planet in our solar system, the gateway to
the rest of the universe, there it will forever
remain, if not in mind, then in body.