Apparently, size matters
Sunday, September 03, 2006
In the news this week has been Pluto's demotion from planet to "other". As textbooks have shown for the past seventy or so years, our solar system is made up of nine planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus (ha ha), and Pluto. Some silly organization by the name of the International Astronomer's Union has crafted a set of rules for the standardization of planetary classification (because we needed more standards) and - with this new set of rules - Pluto is deemed to no longer be worthy of planetary status.
I, for one, and upset by this turn of events.
You see I grew up in the age of the Brontosaurus, a dinosaur I was rather fond of. I grew up with charts and posters of these facts, knowledge I was proud of and could get my growing mind around. Pluto was the farthest planet from the sun (most of the time) and I knew this.
While sometimes the scientific world needs standards and regulations, the world doesn't need needless revision. Official standards for the classification of planets? That's ok. Revising the planetary status of Pluto? Not ok. Pharoah, let my planet go!
I, for one, and upset by this turn of events.
You see I grew up in the age of the Brontosaurus, a dinosaur I was rather fond of. I grew up with charts and posters of these facts, knowledge I was proud of and could get my growing mind around. Pluto was the farthest planet from the sun (most of the time) and I knew this.
While sometimes the scientific world needs standards and regulations, the world doesn't need needless revision. Official standards for the classification of planets? That's ok. Revising the planetary status of Pluto? Not ok. Pharoah, let my planet go!
posted by Burton at 10:21 PM
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