Should Pluto be demoted? What exactly is a planet, anyway?
Should Pluto be demoted? What exactly is a planet, anyway?
Should Pluto be demoted? What exactly is a planet, anyway?08/13/2006
At a 12-day conference of the International Astronomical Union beginning Monday in Prague, scientists will conduct a galactic census of sorts.Our solar system is suffering an identity crisis. For decades, it has consisted of nine planets, even as scientists debated whether Pluto really belonged. Then the recent discovery of an object larger and farther away than Pluto threatened to throw this slice of the cosmos into chaos.
Should this newly found icy rock known as “2003 UB313” become the 10th planet? Should Pluto be demoted? And what exactly is a planet, anyway? Ancient cultures regularly revised their answer to the last question and present-day scientists aren’t much better off: There still is no universal definition of “planet.”
That all could soon change, and with it science textbooks around this planet.
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