Astronomers Fight Back Against IAU To Restore Pluto's Planetary Status
Paris, France (AHN) - Astronomers all around the globe are fighting back to have Pluto restored as a planet in our Solar system. More than 300 professional astronomers have already signed a petition in this respect attacking last week's decision by the International Astronomical Union which demoted Pluto to mere a "dwarf planet."
Mark V. Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., and S. Alan Stern, of the Space Science and Engineering Division of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., organized the petition.
The petition filed recently states, "We, as planetary scientists and astronomers do not agree with the IAU's definition of a planet, nor will we use it."
The signers of the petition argue that only a fraction of the nearly 10,000 members of IAU were involved in the Aug 24 voting in Prague.
"A more open process, involving a broader cross-section of the community engaged in planetary studies of our own Solar System and others should be undertaken," Sykes told the AFP.
The British magazine New Scientist said on its website Friday that the rebels intend to stage a conference of up to 1,000 scientists next year to fix the definition of a planet.
According to the new definition for word "planet" approved by IAU, a planet is a celestial body that - orbits the Sun, is large enough for its gravity to pull it into a round shape, and "has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."
The last condition excludes Pluto because it is located among many other icy bodies, like 2003 UB313 and the large asteroid Ceres, in a ring of debris known as the Kuiper Belt.
But some astronomers see the criteria as imprecise. For example, Earth has not cleared out all of the asteroids that cross its path. Even Jupiter, the largest planet, has not entirely cleared out its neighborhood, since it has also been whacked by parts of a disintegrating comet.
Pluto's status has been in debate from decades since it was discovered in 1930.
There is also a group of astronomers who contest that the planetary club, instead of reducing to eight, should be enlarged to other planetary-sized objects, an argument that others contest as unwieldy and confusing for the general public.
