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from the we-changed-the-rules,-we-can-change-them-back-again dept.
After nearly a decade in the wilderness of celestial classification, Pluto is on the rise again. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted to adopt a new definition of what makes a body a planet, and to specifically demote Pluto to the status of dwarf planet. Now, with new data and images streaming in from New Horizons showing that Pluto is not only a little larger than previously thought, but also home to some remarkable geological features (including what may be some of the solar system's youngest mountain peaks, reaching to 11,000 ft/3,353 m high), many are saying it's time to restore the ninth planet to its previous station.
Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the most prominent advocates for Pluto are scientists working on the New Horizons mission, which reached the closest point of its long-awaited Pluto fly-by on July 14.
"We are free to call it a planet right now," Philip Metzger, a planetary scientist on the New Horizons mission, told DW.com. "Science is not decided by votes ... the planetary science community has never stopped calling bodies like Pluto 'planets'."
Really, isn't it time to re-classify Pluto as a dog?
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:40PM
So you want to arbitrarily redefine "planet" to specifically include Pluto but nothing else? If anything, the definition for "planet" should require the body to be on the celestial plane, because that at least isn't arbitrary just to include one specific Kuiper Belt Object that everyone is totally fucking obsessed with being called a planet (seriously, what is the fucking obsession?).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:43PM
It's not much different than the IAU definition which was written to specifically exclude Pluto.
Jupiter ins't a planet either because it hasn't yet cleared it's neighborhood. Neither have the Earth/Mars system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2015, @09:46PM
Except it wasn't, it was written to exclude bodies like Pluto, Eris, Makemake, Ceres, Haumea, Sedna, Orcus, Salacia, Quaroar, and other asteroid belt, Kuiper belt, and Oort cloud objects, rather than just specifically Pluto.