Pluto Isn’t Going Anywhere

Thursday 24 August 2006 - Filed under Astronomy

I’m personally glad that the IAU un-classified Pluto as a planet. Remember, folks, we shouldn’t expect scientists to be sentimental about this. We are not naming puppies here, we are trying to find rational definitions for physical objects in the universe. Pluto is vastly dissimilar from the “classical planets” and very similar to a lot of non-planet objects. As we find more and more of these things it would be silly to give Pluto some special status just because we’ve known about it the longest.

Welcome to the new solar system! Don’t worry, Pluto isn’t going anywhere. We haven’t “lost” it, it is no more or less important than it was yesterday.

2006-08-24  »  lolife