Accidental Blogger

It's the month of August and once again, as the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is about to convene for its general assembly meeting in Rio de Janeiro to discuss matters astronomical, my thoughts turn to Pluto, the planet / unplanet.  Apparently, since its high handed and mostly unpopular ouster from the line up of planets three years ago, Pluto has lost its lobbying power. It is not likely to be reinstated to the planetary fold any time soon although some astronomers believe that a decade or so in the future, data collected by space probes will establish its bona fides as an authentic planet once again. (See Eric Berger's article in the Houston Chronicle) 

So with no revision to Pluto's status is the former planet's demotion officially a fait accompli?

Not likely, said Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Ariz.

“The IAU executive committee does not want to address it,” Sykes said. “They put out their encyclical, and they're basically done with it. But does the IAU dictate thought? No, they're not the holy mother church. There are a lot of scientists who will simply ignore what they have done and continue to refer to and write about Pluto as a planet.”

Celestial evidence

Sykes said he believes evidence will come out within the next decade that will force the IAU to reverse its decision on Pluto.

Two separate probes, the Dawn mission to the large asteroid Ceres and the New Horizons probe to Pluto, should reach their respective targets in the year 2015.

The IAU definition essentially treats dwarf planets such as Ceres and Pluto as innate hunks of rock, Sykes said. But both of these bodies have atmospheres, and Sykes believes the probes will also find evidence of geological activity. Ceres might even have a sub-surface ocean.

“I think we're going to find that these planets are much more like the Earth than Earth is like Jupiter,” he said.

Not all American astronomers agree. Foremost among Pluto's detractors is Neil deGrasse Tyson , who as director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 2000 omitted Pluto from an exhibit of the planets.

At the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Pluto remains entrenched in an outdoor diagram of the planets, with a plaque that still lists it as a planet.

“We have no plans to remove the object since it's still there in the real solar system,” said Carolyn Sumners , the museum's director of astronomy. “Since changing plaques is expensive and Pluto's status is still in flux, we decided to leave the plaque as it is and see if the astronomical community can reach a more permanent consensus.”

 

A couple of more observations. While searching the archives for Pluto related posts, I discovered that  this is the sixth time in less than four years that I am writing about the ninth planet on A.B.  And although I had suspected that Pluto's (the only planet discovered by an American) demotion had something to do with the unpopularity of American politics in 2006, I had not seen anything until now, to confirm my suspicion.  Berger mentions that the plight of Pluto had much to do with the rest of the world's anger with the Iraq war. Oh well, so Pluto didn't just get plutoed – it also got Bushed.