Remember when you were little, fascinated while reading the oversized, pictorial science books? In the astronomy section you found out we lived in a galaxy called the ‘Solar System.’ You learned that there were nine planets within it – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and other mysterious names that sparked endless imaginations. However, one day this is no longer the case; that segment of astronomy that is within the fundamental knowledge base of the general public has been challenged.
‘ ‘ ‘ Pluto, the once ninth planet was discovered in 1930 by an American astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh. Its diameter is about two-thirds that of Earth’s Moon. It gets very close to the Sun but can also be as far as 7 billion kilometers away. Its companion, Charon, is about half the size of Pluto and shares the same orbit and the two are often cited together.
‘ ‘ ‘ The controversy started when Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist from the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center for Earth and Space, boldly removed Pluto in one of his exhibitions from the planetary system. Predictably, something as deep-rooted as the ‘Planet Pluto’ is put under skeptical eyes. A large amount of media attention was directed towards the question of Pluto’s status and the lengthy process of finding an agreement between scientists.
‘ ‘ ‘ This provocative proposal, as expected, did not quite please everyone. On the popular television program ‘The Colbert Report,’ Tyson stated that he received a considerable amount of hate mail.
‘ ‘ ‘ Later on, the discovery of an object larger than Pluto, Xena, officially named 2003 UB313, by the scientist Michael Brown from Caltech, made the need for a new definition of planets an urgent quest among astronomers.
‘ ‘ ‘ In response to this demand, the International Astronomical Union, an organization that was founded in 1919, boasts that its ‘individual members are professional astronomers all over the world, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, and active in professional research and education in astronomy,’ has debated and voted on a new plan during their meetings in Prague.
‘ ‘ ‘ According to the IAU 2006 meeting, their final draft on the definition of a planet has settled on ‘the key criterion that sets a planet apart from a ‘dwarf planet,’ like Pluto. The stipulation required by the IAU for an object to be considered a planet, it must have cleared the area around its orbit. Planets are big enough that their gravity can force them into a spherical shape. The unstated implication is that many dwarf planets ‘haven’t taken the planet formation process to completion for whatever reason.’
‘ ‘ ‘ In other words, although Pluto has a nearly round shape and orbits around the sun, it nevertheless failed to satisfy to the rule that it must have ‘cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.’ Pluto is kept in its position mostly by Neptune’s gravitational force. Therefore, it belongs to a whole new category named ‘dwarf planet.’ If Pluto is to remain a planet, many, possibly hundreds of other objects should be classified as such too.
‘ ‘ ‘ The amount of enthusiasm in the categorization of Pluto is apparent, making it easy to wonder why all the attention? Was the demotion of Pluto as significant an event as the media had made it seem to be?
‘ ‘ Dr. Fred Walter, professor of astronomy, summarized the phenomenon, ‘I thought it was amusing’hellip;if you put yourself in Pluto’s place’hellip;it is simply a lot more prestigious to be a planet.’ According to Walter, whether Pluto is deemed a planet or not does not change anything about its physical construct. The issue is here because there are individuals who want Pluto to remain a planet.
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Yes, it made a big splash, mostly because every grade school kid in the world has had to memorize the ‘nine’ planets. It is part of the culture. But I don’t think it has started any civil wars or increased famine,’ commented Dr. Deane Peterson, associate professor of astronomy. ‘It was a nice distraction and an interesting view of something, understandable to everyone, which had come up in a very specialized part of the scientific community. I think people were amused.’
‘ ‘ Students at Stony Brook who have an interest in astronomy are in luck. During the academic year, on the first Friday of every month, the Astronomy department offers a series of lectures given by our research faculty, and are held in Lecture Room 001 of the Earth and Space Sciences Building. The October meeting features the lecture, ‘Is Pluto a Planet?’
