"... and Pluto, little Pluto is the farthest planet from the Sun" -- Interplanet JanetI'm glad that cooler heads at the IAU have prevailed, scrapping the "compromise" plan floated earlier this week that would have paved the way for hundreds of new planets, and opting in favor of demoting
Pluto to a more-appropriate class of "minor planets".
Perhaps the compromise proposed by a sub-committee of the IAU earlier this week was meant to force the larger body to see that a decision had to be made. Regardless, I am pleased with the outcome of logic prevailing over sentimentality.
The press has really done a bad job with this one, announcing that there were 4 new planets, including the asteroid
Ceres, before a decision had even been made, and running headlines such as "
Solar System Expands!" and "
Solar System Shrinks!" as if the actual dimensions of the solar system were effected by how solar system bodies are classified on our little planet.
On a related note, the tendency to pity Pluto because of its demotion is misguided. Pluto does not care whether it is a planet or a minor planet or Kuiper Belt Object or whatever. Pluto is not a sentient being! And, even if it were, I'm sure it would have a much more Zen attitude about its status, contentedly drifting out among thousands of other little icy spheres.
Really, we are just pitying ourselves because as a rule we humans do not like change. "I learned the nine planets! I can't handle losing one of them!" cry the masses. But how many of these same people can name all nine -- er, eight -- planets in order? How many of these people know anything about the planets? How many of these people think that
Mars is hot?!
That said, I really enjoyed this "key quote" from the article at
The Scotsman:
"I have a slight tear in my eye today, yes; but at the end of the day we have to describe the solar system as it really is, not as we would like it to be." --
Professor Iwan Williams