Thursday, 8 May 2014

solar system - Is Pluto still a dwarf planet?

A lot of the push to have Pluto reinstated as the 9th planet is coming from Harvard, from their press release Is Pluto a Planet? The Votes Are In (Released September, 2014), they state the following outcomes from a debate:




Science historian Dr. Owen Gingerich, who chaired the IAU planet definition committee, presented the historical viewpoint. Dr. Gareth Williams, associate director of the Minor Planet Center, presented the IAU's viewpoint. And Dr. Dimitar Sasselov, director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, presented the exoplanet scientist's viewpoint.



Gingerich argued that "a planet is a culturally defined word that
changes over time," and that Pluto is a planet. Williams defended the
IAU definition, which declares that Pluto is not a planet. And
Sasselov defined a planet as "the smallest spherical lump of matter
that formed around stars or stellar remnants," which means Pluto is a
planet.




We will have a better understanding of Pluto, hence its classification when NASA's Horizons mission reaches it. But, at this stage, Pluto is still classified as a dwarf planet.

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