When Pluto’s planet status was woefully taken away, it wasn’t just you who felt betrayed by science and destabilized by NASA. There are plenty of third graders out there who were upset by the news. Check out the hate mail.
(via @maudnewton)
When Pluto’s planet status was woefully taken away, it wasn’t just you who felt betrayed by science and destabilized by NASA. There are plenty of third graders out there who were upset by the news. Check out the hate mail.
(via @maudnewton)
One response
Pluto IS still considered a planet by many astronomers. Only four percent of the IAU voted on the controversial demotion, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed by hundreds of professional astronomers in a formal petition led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto. One of the signatores is Dr. Mark Showalter, discoverer of Pluto’s fourth moon. Dr. Stern coined the term “dwarf planet” but meant it to indicate a third class of planets in addition to terrestrials and jovians, small planets large enough to be rounded by their own gravity but not large enough to gravitationally dominate their orbits. He never intended for dwarf planets to not be considered planets at all.
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