illuminating science

I’ve just been reading a fascinating story from Mike Brown, who recently discovered a new planet. I’d been overseas at the time, and had only heard vaguely about it, so it was very cool to read a first hand description! You can see the pictures of the sky, and try and spot the planet yourself. He talks about how planets and asteroids are named, and what his thoughts are for naming this one (although he falls short of actually saying what name he’s submitted for consideration!)

Most interestingly, he talks about what makes a planet a planet, and whether Pluto should indeed have that exulted status. In reality, Pluto isn’t much more than a big rock - there’s nothing to distinguish it from the many other rocks in that region, except for its size. So many purists have been arguing that Pluto should be demoted from planet status, but of course (as Mike Brown insightfully points out) the idea that there are 9 planets is firmly ingrained in our society (not to mention countless posters on school walls!) The powers that be are currently debating whether or not this new object should really be given the title planet. I really hope they do decide to - sure, it’ll make things a little more compicated for a while, but if I were a school student I’d find it very exciting to add another planet to our solar system! And if nothing else, it gives some sort of scientific consistency to the whole thing (”A planet is any object with a size greater than Pluto”). Not perfect, but it’ll do.