“The petition organiser, Mark Sykes, who is director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, said the IAU definition of a planet “does not meet fundamental scientific standards and should be set aside.”"

“NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. Its spacecraft — which also bears some of the ashes of US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930 — blasted off in January this year, months before the IAU decision that relegated Pluto’s status.”
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060901/sc_afp/
scienceastronomypluto

In my mind Pluto will always be a planet. The IAU designation should not stand.

“Pluto and its moon Charon, which would both have been planets under the initial definition proposed Aug. 16, now get demoted because they are part of a sea of other objects that occupy the same region of space. Earth and the other eight large planets have, on the other hand, cleared broad swaths of space of any other large objects.”

Eight? That’s the new total number of planets. Someone wasn’t paying attention when they wrote the article…

Besides that, its an over-reported change in classifications. Pluto is there. It is not similar enough to the remaining 8 planets to remain one. Whatever – the textbooks will catch up in 30 years. – As I understand it they’ve found a sort of second asteroid belt out in Pluto’s region – perhaps it is just a big asteroid then (like Ceres, the biggest rock in the main belt)

Science ignoring public opinion is just political thuggery.

Jim Dermitt, if you wrote a book on this subject titled
“In my mind Pluto will always be a planet,” I would buy it and read it, cover to cover.

From the story:

“Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets,”

Listen you insensitive bastards, that would be “Little Person Planet”

-WKW

In Pluto’s case its how you orbit I guess. If your not in the same plane as the other planets, YOUR out.

Remember that post about relative size of Earth, planets and Suns.
Guess we are just an Asteroid that happens to hold a bunch of sentient creatures that discuss things out of there realm.

Enzo

I like your spirit here – but you really do have a skewed view of science.

Imagination makes for good science fiction. Reality makes for better actual science.

I’ll fight any man who says otherwise!!!!

This doesn’t apply to government scientists. They are forbidden from using any part of their imagination unless designing something that can wipe the population of the Earth out in seconds. Bombs away!

#14,

We blogged that one-way trip to mars HERE. Dumb idea IMNSHO.