It’s time to redefine what qualifies as a planet, scientists propose
Redefinition would add Pluto back to the list, plus about 100 more
PLANET OR NOT? A group of planetary scientists label Pluto and many other orbs in the solar system as planets, despite the definition set down by the International Astronomical Union in 2006.
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute, NASA
Pluto is a planet. It always has been, and it always will be, says Will Grundy of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Now he just has to convince the world of that.
For centuries, the word planet meant “wanderer” and included the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Eventually the moon and sun were dropped from the definition, but Pluto was included, after its discovery in 1930. That idea of a planet as a rocky or gaseous body that orbited the sun stuck, all the way up until 2006.
Then, the International Astronomical Union narrowed the definition, describing a planet as any round object that orbits the sun and has moved any pesky neighbors out of its way, either by consuming them or flinging them off into space. Pluto failed to meet the last criterion (SN: 9/2/06, p. 149), so it was demoted to a dwarf planet.
Almost
