Pluto Given New Classification! Click To Find Out What...

$corp · Jun 11, 2008

Pluto Gets New Classification
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The International Astronomical Union has decided on the term "plutoid" as a name for dwarf planets like Pluto.

Sidestepping concerns of many astronomers worldwide, the IAU's decision, at a meeting of its Executive Committee in Oslo, comes almost two years after it stripped Pluto of its planethood and introduced the term "dwarf planets" for Pluto and other small round objects that often travel highly elliptical paths around the sun in the far reaches of the solar system.

The name plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III and by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN), and approved by the IAU Executive Committee at its recent meeting in Oslo, according to a statement released today.

Here's the official new definition:

"Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit."

In short: small round things beyond Neptune that orbit the sun and have lots of rocky neighbors.

The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris, the IAU stated. The organization expects more plutoids will be found.

Controversy Continues

Already the IAU recognizes it is adding to an ongoing controversy.

The IAU has been responsible for naming planetary bodies and their satellites since the early 1900s. Its decision in 2006 to demote Pluto was highly controversial, with some astronomers saying simply that they would not heed it and questioning the IAU's validity as a governing body.

"The IAU is a democratic organization, thus open to comments and criticism of any kind," IAU General Secretary Karel A. van der Hucht told SPACE.com by email today. "Given the history of the issue, we will probably never reach a complete consensus."

It remains to be seen whether astronomers will use the new term.

"My guess is that no one is going to much use this term, though perhaps I'm wrong," said Caltech astronomer Mike Brown, who has led the discovery of several objects in the outer solar system, including Eris. "But I don't think that this will be because it is controversial, just not particularly necessary."

Brown was unaware of the new definition until the IAU announced it today.

"Back when the term 'pluton' was nixed they said they would come up with another one," Brown said. "So I guess they finally did."

More Debate Coming

The dwarf planet Ceres is not a plutoid as it is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, according to the IAU. Current scientific knowledge lends credence to the belief that Ceres is the only object of its kind, the IAU stated. Therefore, a separate category of Ceres-like dwarf planets will not be proposed at this time, the reasoning goes.

A meeting, planned earlier this year for Aug. 14-16 at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, aims to bring astronomers of varying viewpoints together to discuss the controversy. "No votes will be taken at this conference to put specific objects in or out of the family of planets," APL's Dr. Hal Weaver, a conference organizer, said in a statement in May. "But we will have advocates of the IAU definition and proponents of alternative definitions presenting their cases."

The term plutoid joins a host of other odd words -- plutinos, centaurs, cubewanos and EKOs -- that astronomers use to define objects in the outer solar system.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080611/sc_space/plutonowcalledaplutoid

Click to expand...

I remember there being a really long thread last year or the year before regarding Pluto, and whether it was considered a "planet" or not. I thought I'd post it for all of you involved in that.

Dan Leach · Jun 11, 2008

F*ck pluto, it should have lost its status as a planet a long time ago.
If its a planet we have thousands of planets in the solar system. The line has to be drawn somewhere

Volpone · Jun 11, 2008

They can call it my dead aunt Betty. It is still a planet.

Ramen · Jun 11, 2008

Does it have space babes with huge green tits?

No?

Then fuck it.

NAHTMMM · Jun 11, 2008

plutinos, centaurs, cubewanos and EKOs
Click to expand...

RickDeckard · Jun 14, 2008

Volpone said: ↑

They can call it my dead aunt Betty. It is still a planet.
Click to expand...

Is Eris a planet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(dwarf_planet)

Aurora · Jun 14, 2008

Bring back Pluto

Dan Leach · Jun 14, 2008

No Pluto is not a planet and should have lost that status sometime soon after it was discovered.

If Pluto is a planet we have thousands of not millions of planets in the solar system.... who wants to learn all those names?

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Pluto Given New Classification! Click To Find Out What...

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Pluto Given New Classification! Click To Find Out What...

$corp Dirty Old Chinaman

Dan Leach Climbing Staff Member Moderator

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RickDeckard Socialist

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