should Pluto be reinstated as a planet?

When astronomers stripped Pluto of its status as a planet in 2006, children and grown-ups raised a ruckus. Some kids even sent hate mail to the Hayden Planetarium complaining about Pluto's "demotion" to dwarf planet status.

"Why do you think Pluto is no longer a planet?" Emerson York, then a third-grader living in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, wrote in a letter to the Planetarium's director, Neil deGrasse Tyson. "Pluto is my faveret planet!!! PLUTO IS A PLANET!!!!!!!"

Now it seems some astronomers are having second thoughts. In a Sept. 18 debate hosted in Cambridge, Mass. at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, three experts in planetary science duked it out over whether Pluto should be considered a planet.

Dr. Gareth Williams, associate director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, said the icy body does not qualify for planetary status. But Dr. Dimitar Sasselov, director of Harvard’s Origins of Life Initiative, argued otherwise. And Dr. Owen Gingerich, professor emeritus of astronomy at Harvard and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, argued that defining what a planet is shouldn't be up to scientists.

“What is a planet is a culturally defined word that has changed over the ages. The IAU was foolhardy to try and define the word planet," he said.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/pluto-planet-debate_n_5868008.html?utm_hp_ref=science

Lone Wolf wrote:  

IF PLUTO is a "planet", then Tasmania should be accepted as a separate country in it's own right !!!
 

Original Quill wrote:

Lone Wolf wrote:  

IF PLUTO is a "planet", then Tasmania should be accepted as a separate country in it's own right !!!
 

Wait.  Wait.  Tasmania isn't a country?  Po' devils.  

veya_victaous wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Lone Wolf wrote:  

IF PLUTO is a "planet", then Tasmania should be accepted as a separate country in it's own right !!!
 

Wait.  Wait.  Tasmania isn't a country?  Po' devils.  

yeah just like Hawaii is

Ben_Reilly wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Lone Wolf wrote:  

IF PLUTO is a "planet", then Tasmania should be accepted as a separate country in it's own right !!!
 

Wait.  Wait.  Tasmania isn't a country?  Po' devils.  

yeah just like Hawaii is

Sorry, my antipodean friend, I believe you meant "Texas" rather than "Hawaii."

I know that due to my own not-inconsiderable awesomeness, most here are willing to allow that Texas itself is probably pretty awesome. But Texas is Tasmania to most Americans. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain to my own fellow Democrats that just because I'm from Texas doesn't make me an Obama-hating, Bible-thumping gun-licker.

Pluto Is Actually Bigger Than Earth, If You Include Its Atmosphere

It’s the only fair way to do the comparison, really.

And this is a conservative estimate: Pluto’s atmosphere could actually be even bigger than it’s shown in the image above. We’ll have to wait for New Horizons to get there later this year to find out for sure.

veya_victaous wrote:http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/pluto-is-actually-bigger-than-earth-if-you-include-its-atmos#.ocrgB2DqOY

Pluto Is Actually Bigger Than Earth, If You Include Its Atmosphere

It’s the only fair way to do the comparison, really.

And this is a conservative estimate: Pluto’s atmosphere could actually be even bigger than it’s shown in the image above. We’ll have to wait for New Horizons to get there later this year to find out for sure.