Hrm … sorry, but I don’t really care what astronomers say. I still think Pluto is a planet.
Some astronomers are still sane:
Although yesterday’s decision was reached by a majority vote, some of the most senior scientists involved are dismayed. “We now have dwarf planets which are in fact not planets. I consider this a linguistic catastrophe. I think the union is going to get a lot of flak for this, in doing it in such a muddy way,” said Owen Gingerich, chairman of the IAU’s official planet definition committee.
“It’ll cause a rewrite of the textbooks. I think a lot of the astronomers at the meeting were really just trying to correct the mistake made in 1930,” he added.
Others, however, are saying things like don’t worry, be happy, Pluto is still “interesting to study.”
But Iwan Williams, president of the IAU’s planetary systems sciences and an astronomer at Queen Mary, University of London, was happy with the decision. “It was a clear majority and Pluto is still an interesting body to study,” he said.
The current silliness is just a continuation … a few short days ago, they were going to call Pluto and Charon, its moon, both planets. Ah well.
Don’t worry Pluto. We still love you.
[tags] pluto, astronomy, astronomers, charon, planet, IAU [/tags]