New Delhi: In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) – which names celestial bodies – passed a resolution deciding that Pluto would no longer be recognized as a planet, but called a ‘dwarf planet’. Will go Many planetary scientists have since quashed the decision, claiming that they still consider Pluto to be a planet.
An international team of scientists now wants Pluto to be reclassified as a planet, NBC News reported. They want to reclassify dozens of similar bodies in the Solar System and those found around distant stars as planets, the report said.
Pluto was considered the ninth planet since its discovery in 1930. However, in August 2006, the IAU decided that a planet must be spherical, orbit the Sun, have sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces, and must, according to Resolution B5, Which defines a planet in the Solar System, has cleared the vicinity of its orbit.
Therefore, a dwarf planet is a celestial body that has all the characteristics of a planet, except for the fact that it has not cleared the neighborhood of its orbit according to resolution. Pluto is round and orbits the Sun, and thus meets the two requirements needed to be classified as a planet.
However, Pluto did not qualify under the new definition because it shares its orbit with objects called “plutinos”.
Why has the debate about Pluto’s status revived?
Now, a new study published in the journal Icarus claims the IAU’s definition of a planet was based on astrology, which is a type of folklore, not science.
The authors noted in the study that the IAU definition is now vehemently rejected by many planetary scientists for four reasons. A fourth reason is that the resolution reflects to the public that classification can be decided by voting, which undermines their understanding of the scientific process, and may undermine their confidence in the scientific endeavour.
The researchers noted in the study that Pluto should be classified as a planet under the definition used by scientists since the 16th century, which states that planets are geologically active bodies in space.
According to the NBC report, there are probably more than 150 planets in our solar system, said Philip Metzger, the study’s lead author and a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida.
According to planetary geologist Paul Byrne, NASA’s New Horizons probe, which flew past Pluto in 2015, made some interesting revelations, rekindling the debate about Pluto’s status.
The researchers said the IAU’s definition contradicts the age-old definition of a planet.
The IAU created a new definition of a planet in 2006 because by then, Pluto-like objects, such as Eris and Makemake, had been found.
Citing Metzger, the report states that most planetary scientists disregard the IAU’s definition of a planet because it is an astrological concept, and that they consider Pluto, and Titan and Triton, along with some other moons, to be planets. call by word. He added: “Basically, we are ignoring the IAU.”
What do other scientists say about Pluto’s status?
Dr. Alan Stern, a planetary scientist who leads NASA’s New Horizons mission, said at the “I Heart Pluto Festival 2021”, a virtual event hosted by Lowell Observatory in Arizona, that the IAU’s use of the vote made science arbitrary and political. Rely on science itself, according to a Forbes article weakened. Lowell Observatory is the very scene of the discovery of Pluto by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930.
Stern said the IAU definition was coined by non-experts, or astronomers who study stars, galaxies and black holes. He thinks the definition of planet is bad and that the IAU has failed it.
He said the solar system is so full of asteroids that no celestial body has “cleared the neighborhood” around its orbit.
He said that Pluto easily qualifies as a planet, as do all “dwarf planets”.
For a long time, Stern called the IAU unscientific, and it was created primarily to keep the number of “official” planets at a manageable number.
At a robotics program in Colorado in 2019, former NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said that in his view, Pluto is a planet, and could write that a NASA administrator once declared Pluto a planet, as a Space.com is according to the article.
He said that Pluto is a planet and he clings to it. This is how he learned it and he is committed to it.
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