Will Pluto Become a Planet Again? Some Scientists Believe That Taking Away Its Title Was A Mistake
A study has aimed at proving that Pluto is just as deserving of the title “planet” as the other eight official planets that orbit the sun in our solar system.
Researchers of the study concluded that Pluto should be considered a planet again although it was declared only a “dwarf planet” in 2006 after the definition of a planet was redefined by The International Astronomical Union.
The study that was announced in earlier December and was published in the journal of Icarus, says that “moons are planets” and claims that the redefined planet definition was rushed.
The IAU redefined a planet as “a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit,” according to Solarsystem.nasa.gov.
Pluto got rejected due to it sharing its orbit with objects called plutinos, although it does meet the other two requirements.
The study also highlights that science since the 1500’s has included moons as planets, planets in any orbital state are “unique and complex objects of the cosmos,” and that defining planets this way technically aligns with old and new ways of thinking.
The researchers believe that the old definition that defined a planet as “any geologically active bodies in space” is actually more fitting for the modern understanding of them.
This would include Earth’s moon, all surrounding moons, asteroids, and dwarf planets. The researchers believe there is nothing wrong with having more “planets.”
“Some scientists tried to develop a method to mathematically justify a small number of planets, which was the criterion that a planet has to clear its own orbit, and this was really developed post facto to keep an orderly, small number of planets,” Philip Metzger, the study’s lead author and a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida told UCFToday.
Although Metzger and other researchers from the study believe there could be around 150 planets in our solar system.
The study also points to the fact that Pluto along with moons are still unofficially being called planets even with the redefinition.
“We are continuing to call Pluto a planet in our papers, we are continuing to call Titan and Triton and some other moons by the term ‘planet’,” Metzger told NBC News in an interview. “Basically, we are ignoring the IAU.”
The researchers do believe that the official definition does matter though and that it does shape how we observe and think about it, which is why they are calling for the definition to be reconsidered once again by the IAU.
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