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The Planetary Society Blog
By Emily Lakdawalla
The Pluto Controversy
Sep. 5, 2006 | 12:45 PDT | 19:45 UTC
by Rosaly Lopes
It is my pleasure to be this week's guest blogger, a totally new experience for me. I will start by briefly introducing myself. I am a planetary scientist working at JPL, currently Investigation Scientist for the Cassini RADAR instrument and very excited about exploring Titan. My expertise is in planetary geology and volcanology, and many of you know me because of my work on Io and participation on the Galileo mission. (If you want further details about my background, see my personal website -- you can also listen to a couple of interviews on Planetary Radio.
I will start by commenting on what is still the hot topic of the week, or month, or even year. No, it is not a major discovery. It is dear little old Pluto, demoted from planet status. I am not taking sides on this debate, but I am sure hearing a lot about it.
I am a member of the IAU's Nomenclature Committee, so I hear about the issue from my IAU colleagues, who naturally defend the IAU's decision. I am a collaborator on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, so I hear the point of view of other scientists on this mission, many of whom don't agree with the "demotion". I am a member of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the AAS, and my colleagues there also comment on the issue and even started a petition to re-instate Pluto as a planet. Plus there are ad-hoc email lists about the issue, and I seem to have ended up on several of those. There are colleagues from South America (Brazil is my native country) and Europe (I lived in England and Italy) who also have strong opinions to share. All over the world, the Pluto issue is at the forefront of planetary science discussions.
The most interesting aspect to me is how big an issue this has become. We planetary scientists have seen, over the years, our budgets slashed and our missions cancelled, yet never have I heard so much debate and complaining in the community. Pluto, a fascinating world who surely doesn't care what it is called, is now at the center of a major controversy, with pro-Pluto and anti-Pluto camps debating its planetary status with no end in sight. This problem is not new, it seems to arise whenever we try to fit Nature into neat categories.
A View from Pluto's MoonAn artist's conception of the view from one of Pluto's new moons showing Pluto, Charon, and the other small moon. Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon |
Can a compromise be reached that will satisfy both camps? So far, the best compromise I have heard came from an email from the National Science Teachers Association. It said "Pluto is a dwarf planet. It is still a planet, you don't need to take it off your wall". This is not quite what the IAU meant by its definition, but perhaps the teachers have already worked out a compromise, ahead of us scientists. When you explain science to kids, you have to simplify concepts. How many members of the general public understand the concept of a body clearing its neighborhood?
Perhaps the best thing about this hot issue is that now everyone knows about Pluto, even if they don't know whether it is a planet or not. You can now get a paraphernalia of Pluto products in the internet. Comedians are having more fun with Pluto than they had even with the Hubble (remember those days?). My Sunday paper had a hilarious essay by George Waters, "Pluto, we hardly knew ye". It seems that we will now have only 11 days of Christmas, as the Three French Hens walked out in solidarity with Pluto. But Waters says not to worry, Congress has hired replacements, the Three Freedom Hens. It is nice to know that Congress has come to the rescue once again.
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