Planetary storm over status of Pluto
source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/planetary-storm-over-status-of-pluto-1222862.html
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- pjacobs51
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Campaign seeks to overturn ruling that split the world of astronomy.
The number nine has a special significance for Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. Nine is the number of planets in the Solar System, and Sykes is one of several leading astronomers who want to keep it that way.
Unfortunately, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which adjudicates on these matters, has ruled there are no longer nine planets in the Solar System, after a decision two years ago to downgrade Pluto to the lowly status of a "dwarf planet".
But in 2009, Dr Sykes and his like-minded colleagues hope to get the ruling overturned at the next general assembly of the IAU, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in August.
"The IAU is not the Holy Mother Church, so its pronouncements are not followed by everybody," said Dr Sykes. "To me and many like me, Pluto remains a planet and there are still nine planets in the Solar System.
"The one thing that was particularly bad about the IAU's decision is that normally it makes pronouncements that are a mark of a general consensus, but here it has tried to impose its view on the rest of us."
The number nine has a special significance for Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. Nine is the number of planets in the Solar System, and Sykes is one of several leading astronomers who want to keep it that way.
Unfortunately, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which adjudicates on these matters, has ruled there are no longer nine planets in the Solar System, after a decision two years ago to downgrade Pluto to the lowly status of a "dwarf planet".
But in 2009, Dr Sykes and his like-minded colleagues hope to get the ruling overturned at the next general assembly of the IAU, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in August.
"The IAU is not the Holy Mother Church, so its pronouncements are not followed by everybody," said Dr Sykes. "To me and many like me, Pluto remains a planet and there are still nine planets in the Solar System.
"The one thing that was particularly bad about the IAU's decision is that normally it makes pronouncements that are a mark of a general consensus, but here it has tried to impose its view on the rest of us."
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I knew a guy named Pluto.
- 3 years ago
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celestialceiling
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Pluto will always be a planet to me
- 3 years ago
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celestialceiling
