Forget science, Illinois wants planet Pluto
Posted by JP on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 10:21
We bring you the following in honor of the Illinois Senate Executive Committee's unanimous vote to support having Illinois recognize Pluto as a planet despite what scientists say because the man who found it is was from Illinois.
You can read the Senate resolution here.
The great thing about this is I can have an informed political discussion with my 7-year-old son. He offered to let me borrow his book When is a planet not a planet: The story of Pluto.
He seemed a bit miffed that politics could cast aside science. Ah, youth.
Morte de Despots!!
There is strong scientific reasoning for Pluto keeping its planet status. Unlike most objects in the Kuiper Belt, Pluto has attained hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning it has enough self-gravity to have pulled itself into a round shape. This is a hallmark of planets and not characteristic of asteroids and comets. It is actually the demotion of Pluto that was driven by politics. Only four percent of the International Astronomical Union voted on the demotion, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed by hundreds of professional astronomers in a petition led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. You can find that petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest/
The IAU definition makes no sense because it states that a dwarf planet is not a planet at all. That's like saying a grizzly bear is not a bear--and it is inconsistent with the use of the term "dwarf" in astronomy, where dwarf stars are still stars, and dwarf galaxies are still galaxies. Also, the IAU definition classifies objects solely by where they are while ignoring what they are. If Earth were in Pluto's orbit, according to the IAU definition, it would not be a planet either.
It is because the demotion of Pluto is based on such a flawed planet definition that scientists and lay people are working behind the scenes to get that demotion overturned. You can find more about both sides of this very much ongoing debate at the site of the Great Planet Debate, held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in August 2008 here: http://gpd.jhuapl.edu/ And you can read more about why demoting Pluto is wrong on my blog at http://laurele.livejournal.com
Your son deserves to know there are two sides to this ongoing debate. I hope you will purchase a new children's book for him on why Pluto is a planet, by Dr. Alan Stern, when it comes out this fall.