Pluto Demoted, No Longer A Planet

(CBS/AP)  Pluto, beloved by some as a cosmic underdog but scorned by astronomers who considered it too dinky and distant, was unceremoniously stripped of its status as a planet Thursday.

The International Astronomical Union, dramatically reversing course just a week after floating the idea of reaffirming Pluto's planethood and adding three new planets to Earth's neighborhood, downgraded the ninth rock from the sun in historic new galactic guidelines.

"Pluto is smaller than our moon, not of planetary size," astronomer Sir Patrick Moore told CBS Evening News interim anchor Bob Schieffer. "If we call Pluto a planet, there are others: Xena, Verona, Terran, Ceres — the list is endless. In fact, that makes no sense at all."

The shift will have the world's teachers scrambling to alter lesson plans just as schools open for the fall term.

"It will all take some explanation, but it is really just a reclassification and I can't see that it will cause any problems," said Neil Crumpton, who teaches science at a high school north of London. "Science is an evolving subject and always will be."

Powerful new telescopes, experts said, are changing the way they size up the mysteries of the solar system and beyond. But the scientists at the conference showed a soft side, waving plush toys of the Walt Disney character Pluto the dog — and insisting that Pluto's spirit will live on in the exciting discoveries yet to come.

"The word 'planet' and the idea of planets can be emotional because they're something we learn as children," said Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped hammer out the new definition.

"This is really all about science, which is all about getting new facts," he said. "Science has marched on. ... Many more Plutos wait to be discovered."

Pluto, a planet since 1930, got the boot because it didn't meet the new rules, which say a planet not only must orbit the sun and be large enough to assume a nearly round shape, but must "clear the neighborhood around its orbit." That disqualifies Pluto, whose oblong orbit overlaps Neptune's, downsizing the solar system to eight planets from the traditional nine.

Astronomers have labored without a universal definition of a planet since well before the time of Copernicus, who proved that the Earth revolves around the sun, and the experts gathered in Prague burst into applause when the guidelines were passed.

Predictably, Pluto's demotion provoked plenty of wistful nostalgia.

"It's disappointing in a way, and confusing," said Patricia Tombaugh, the 93-year-old widow of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh.

"I don't know just how you handle it. It kind of sounds like I just lost my job," she said from Las Cruces, N.M. "But I understand science is not something that just sits there. It goes on. Clyde finally said before he died, 'It's there. Whatever it is. It is there."'

The decision by the IAU, the official arbiter of heavenly objects, restricts membership in the elite cosmic club to the eight classical planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

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[travis123abc]

Pluto should be a planet!!!, here is a funny joke I saw about why pluto should be a planet, http://ponderingstuff.com/2011/02/12/pluto-planet/

[dsdlfl]

PLuto's orbit varies by roughly 17 degrees from the plane in which the now 8 planet system lies. Ceres' has just as strong a case for planet-hood as Pluto, but anyone nostalgic about Ceres has been dead for 200 years.

[moser71]

The universe holds many mysteries. There's more out there than we know. Pluto has existed long enough to give credence to it's authenticity as a TRUE PLANET. Whatevidenceis cited to demote it? Having done this, it sounds as though the universe has gotten smaller.

[dsdlfl]

My young cousin behaved the same way as Tyler.....

................Only he was upset because Chris Shelton was sent down to the AAA Mudhens. Oh and Mickey Mouse is on his last legs. Say goodbye to cartoon PLuto as well.

[dsdlfl]

Pluto's orbit is highly eliptical, and in fact isn't in the same plane as the other planets. The 8 planet system will be far easier to use than what could possibly swell to 100 as further exploration of the Kuiper Belt occured.

[ronniehm]

That's right, Raver, because planets have feelings too.

[bubbiesraver]

Saying that Pluto isn't a planet, is like saying midgets aren't people.

[buzzygirl-2009]

This whole debate reminds us of how little we actually know about the outer reaches of our solar system.

The Kuiper Belt, of which Pluto, Xena, Sedna and 2003 UB313 are a part, contains the leftovers from the birth of our solar system. We need to study this class of objects up close if possible, because the more we understand them, the more we'll know about the formative years of our solar system. Their distance is daunting for personal exploration, but Pluto is the closest of these objects that we know of, and will serve as a representative for their class.

Hopefully, the demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet will not deleteriously affect NASA's New Horizons project.

[tommy__chong]

Hey man this is messed up why cant pluto be a planet. I mean what did he do to you man? Leave him alone. Litte guy in the sky you are always a planet to be buddie. Do you people have nothing better to do than to decided what planets get to STAY planets go *** yourself.

[alphaa10-2009]

Gossimer3-- Actually, astrologers have a problem not only with Pluto but something called the "precession of the equinoxes"-- meaning the dates supposedly applying to each zodiac sign no longer coincide with the current position of that constellation. For example, the solar month of Scorpio no longer finds the constellation Scorpio overhead. Apparently, the universe has dared to move since these solar periods were cast in stone (sometimes literally). Likewise, the earth is no longer the center of the cosmos-- heavens!

All this "fumbling" among astronomers about Pluto illustrates the self-corrective aspect of science-- not least in the fact, this time, no one has been tried before a high council for the heresy Pluto cannot be a planet.

We are reminded of the 1997 Pathfinder mission to Mars and the gradually emerging topology of the landing site. As new data clarified the surroundings, looming boulders became only rocks, and as the view expanded, these rocks became tinier, still, in context of everything else. This clarity need not annihilate human significance, but it is nice to know what we are looking at, as well.