Reluctant to remove Pluto from the list of true planets orbiting the Sun, scientists have instead proposed that the definition of what a planet is, meaning that we may soon have twelve planets instead of just nine.
Hoping to end the agonizing over whether Pluto is really a planet, an international committee of astronomers has come up with a new definition that would save the tiny body’s place in the sun’s family.
Under the long-awaited proposal, Pluto would remain in the pantheon of planets by becoming the prototype of a new subcategory of small, outer solar system objects dubbed “plutons” — planets, but distinct from the eight larger “classical” planets closer to the sun.
The changes would require astronomy textbooks to be rewritten and every schoolchild to be taught a new vision of the solar system, because three other orbs would get promoted to planet status, as well — expanding the total from the traditional nine to 12.
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The eight “classical” planets would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Ceres, an object located between Mars and Jupiter that has long been considered an asteroid, would be considered a planet.
Pluto, another object discovered orbiting it in 1978 called Charon, and a body discovered in 2003 that is slightly farther from the sun — temporarily named UB313– would be plutons. A pluton would be any planet beyond Neptune.
At first glance, this seems a little silly to me.
August 16th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
The number is almost certain to increase as well. The Kuiper Belt is a greatly unexplored region, and many more objects of that size may be found; it is also possible that some other already found bodies, such as Quaoar and Sedna certainly could be added to that list.