Each and every day we are living in this world is an important day. Our eye watches many things in a day and some may be pleasant and some may be disgusting. But admiring the nature is the evergreen treat for our eyes. Sunset, Moon and stars are the special among them. Beyond that there is a gigantic world which we cannot see through our normal eyes. They are called as planets and galaxies. There are nine planets which are found by the scientists and they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. But now scientists say that Pluto is not a planet and it is removed from the list. This is because the scientists found new object larger than Pluto out beyond its orbit. However there may be some other planets which are yet to be found. Only God knows everything.
It's not "scientists" who say Pluto isn't a planet and have removed it from the list. It's four percent of the International Astronomical Union, most of whom are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. Stern and like-minded scientists favor a broader planet definition that includes any non-self-luminous spheroidal body orbiting a star. The spherical part is important because objects become round when they are large enough for their own gravity to pull them into a round shape. Both Pluto and Eris, the larger object beyond it, are planets by this definition. In fact, this definition gives our solar system 13 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
ReplyDeleteYou can find the petition of Stern and like-minded astronomers here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest/
And you can read more about why Pluto is a planet on my Pluto blog at http://laurele.livejournal.com