An illustration by artist Ron Miller depicts the moon Charon shining on the methane ice surface of Pluto. Eight years ago Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet.(Photo Ron Miller via NASA)
Here we go again.
Pluto a celestial snowball with a surface of methane ice some 3.6 billion miles from the sun might be making its way back into the solar system fraternity.
First discovered and classified as planet in 1930 Pluto was relegated to dwarf planet status by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. They booted it out since there appeared to be a bunch of other big rocks just like Pluto out beyond the eighth planet (Neptune) all considered too puny to be called a planet.
Now some scientists say that Pluto should be back.
Harvard science historian Owen Gingerich who chairs the IAU planet definition committee argued at a forum last month that a planet is a culturally defined word that changes over time and that Pluto is a planet.
Another expert Gareth Williams associate director of the IAU's Minor Planet Center said that Pluto is not a planet citing the official definition which states that a planet is a celestial body that
is in orbit around the Sun
is round or nearly round and
has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit meaning it is not surrounded by objects of similar size and characteristics.
Williams said Pluto failed on that third qualification since it had several other dwarf planets near it and also overlaps Neptune's orbit at times.
Pluto is indeed on the puny side with a radius close to 750 miles about one fifth the size of Earth's.
The debate among Gingerich Williams and Dimitar Sasselov director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative took place on Sept. 18 with scientists teachers and civilians watching. Two of out the three experts (Gingerich and Sasselov) said Pluto should be a planet and a popular vote among audience members agreed.
The vote wasn't official naturally so the debate will continue.
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