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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
It turns out that Earth is not a planet. Asteroid 2016 H03, first spotted on April 27, 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii, is a companion of Earth, too distant to be considered a true satellite.
"Since 2016 HO3 loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the sun, we refer to it as a quasi-satellite of Earth," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Asteroid 2016 H03 is proof that Earth has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. Therefore, under the definition of a planet vigorously defended by the IAU [International Astronomical Union] since the adoption of Resolution 5A on August 24, 2006, Earth is a 'dwarf planet' because it has not cleared its orbit, which is the only criteria of their definition that Pluto fails. (I think we'll eventually discover that very few of the 'planets' have cleared their orbits).
Most of us who were baffled by the IAUs declaration and outraged at the obvious discrimination of Pluto knew there was something wrong, even if we couldn't put our finger on it — we just 'knew' Pluto was a planet, right?
[...] Here's what all of us non-scientists intuitively understood all along: "A planet is defined as an astronomical body that "has not undergone nuclear fusion, and having sufficient self-gravitation to assume a spheroidal shape" — in other words, it's round and not on fire.
How could the distinguished scientists be so wrong?
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by Murdoc on Monday April 03 2017, @10:44PM (3 children)
This makes the most sense to me. It works in the animal kingdom too; killer whales aren't whales either, etc. If needed we could go so far as to call it an "honorary" planet, like how people get "honorary" doctorates, because of Pluto's historical and cultural significance. You're right, it wouldn't break astronomy.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday April 03 2017, @11:01PM
"Killer whale" is the common, historical name for the species. They are not scientifically classified as whales. Even in layman's terms they are not usually referred to as whales.
It's not like Pluto is called "Planet Pluto."
If needed we could go so far as to call it an "honorary" planet, like how people get "honorary" doctorates, because of Pluto's historical and cultural significance. You're right, it wouldn't break astronomy.
Historical and cultural significance have little, perhaps nothing, to do with the science of astronomy. Pluto belongs far more obviously in the same scientific category as Sedna, Eris, and Ceres than it does with Neptune, Mercury, and Mars.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday April 04 2017, @01:59AM (1 child)
"Killer whales" aren't even called that any more except by fools. Their more proper name is "orca". Scientists have Latin names for these animals anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @02:47PM
Do the needful, Grishna, and correct hundreds of years of English usage!