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Definition of a planet
Hey all,
2003 UB313 (aka the 'tenth planet') certainly put alot of people into a spin. The question regarding whether it should be classified as a planet has even been discussed in the main stream media. The last one I heard was yesterday on ABC radio from some professional astronomers talking about the upcoming IAU meeting where they hope to come out with a definition.
I guess we never had a strict definition before since no-one expected to find any more (?).
One possibility raised which I had not heard of before was the idea of stripping planethood status from Pluto all together. It seems there are three options :
(a) Create a definition which includes Pluto (and would therefore probably include 2003 UB313 which is larger than Pluto).
(b) Create a definition from which Pluto is technically excluded, but keep Pluto included out of respect for historical/cultural baggage.
(c) As (b), create a definition which excludes Pluto and go back to 8 planets.
I must confess that removing Pluto as a planet seems like a very hard thing to do, given that it is deeply embedded into the social conscience (even if there are good scientific reasons for doing so).
I also understand that this can even be an emotional topic for some.
Anyway, that got me wondering what opinions would be from the good people here at IceInSpace? Since there seems to be division among professionals, I imagine there would be a fair range of thoughts from the people here - and I'm interested to hear them.
What you do think?
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