Posted by Vicki Sieglen on 18 Aug 2006 at 11:14 am.
Filed under Astronomy.
The first open debate regarding the redefining of the word planet at the General Assembly for the International Astronomical Union has failed! In this debate only planetary scientists took part. The proposal was voted down approximately 60 to 40, the term “plutons” was also knocked down in an overwhelming majority vote.
“Most of the speakers during the discussion favored the competing proposal, which inserts the criterion that a planet must be ‘by far the largest body in its population of bodies.’”
Stated Alan Boss a planet-formation theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington to SPACE.com
This alternative definition demotes Pluto. There are lots of objects that orbit beyond Neptune; we have already found a couple of objects that are bigger and further out than Pluto, so Pluto and Charon would be called dwarf planets instead of plutons. If Pluto and Charon were called dwarf planets this would keep with currently astronomy jargon for objects that fall in-between current definitions. For example the term brown dwarf refers to stars that have low-mass and can’t operate like a normal star.
Another option among many, has suggested just to leave the current planet total alone and just ‘grandfather in’ Pluto as a planet, still making it the oddball.
These results are just temporary, the executive board for the IAU will officially cast its decision on Thursday, August 24.
Updates will be made available as soon as possible.
