The Planetary Society Blog
By Emily Lakdawalla
Oh No, Not The Pluto Thing AGAIN!
Sep. 19, 2006 | 10:55 PDT | 17:55 UTC
by Mark Adler
Since most of the other guest bloggers have opined about the whole whether-Pluto-is-a-planet thing, I figure I have to as well. Don't worry. I'll keep it short.
My position on the subject appears to have been grossly underrepresented in all the goings on, since I have not seen it discussed anywhere. (I'm sure readers will point me to where I've missed it.) My position was first stated, I think, by Isaac Asimov who said: "Our solar system consists of a star, four planets, plus debris." The four planets are, of course, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. That in my mind is the only definition of planet that could stand up to scientific scrutiny. The vast gulf in size between those four and the remaining debris in any sort of histogram of solar system objects makes the division startlingly obvious.
So any definition that does not have four planets, and that does not define Earth as a "dwarf planet", a "minor planet", "debris", or some such word would not get my vote. Not that anyone has asked me for my vote. In fact now you can probably see why nobody has asked me for my vote.
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