Musings { Planet / Plantato

An interesting debate is raging as Astronomers meet for their triannual conference in Prague, it revolves around the definition of what a planet is and what properties would make a celestial body a planet. The debate was started by the astronomical troublemaker Pluto who is know for its celestial deliquency (i.e. refuses to stay beyond Neptune) and ability to talk galatic-smack (often making fun of Uranus).

Depending upon how the committee decides, we could have as little as 8 planets, or as many as 53. Various factions feel there should be 10, since the discovery of 2003 UB313 in 2003, while others feel damn near anything in the inner rings and Kuiper Belt should be considered planet or planetoid.

A draft definition that I am seeing floated about is the one where a planet is defined by an object that has sufficent gravity that it forms a sphere and whose orbit revolves around a star. That seems simple enough.

This is one of those debates that re-ignites my interest in Astronomy.

MVEMJSUNP2k3 peace out!