Simon learned a song at school. It goes like this:
The planets, the planets
I can name the planets!
This brain of mine
Knows all nine
Now listen while I say them.
Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars and Jupiter
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto!
So he sings this. And it bugs me. Because Pluto is no longer an official planet, right? So I say,
"Simon, did you know that Pluto isn't actually a planet?" Without skipping a beat he responds in his "Duh, Mom" tone saying, "Mom, it's a dwarf planet."
Well, excuse me.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
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5 comments:
It shouldn't bug you that Simon still includes Pluto in his song because many astronomers still do consider Pluto a planet. The controversial demotion was done by only four percent of the International Astronomical Union, most of whom are not planetary scientists. It was immediately opposed by hundreds of professional astronomers in a petition led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. You can find a copy of that petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest/
The IAU definition makes no sense because it says dwarf planets are not planets at all. That is one of the reasons it is so controversial and not accepted by so many scientists, many of whom are either working to get the demotion overturned or ignoring it entirely.
Please do not blindly accept the controversial IAU demotion and let your son know that there are many astronomers who still DO consider Pluto a planet (they consider dwarf planets a subcategory of planets). You can read more about this on my Pluto blog at http://laurele.livejournal.com
A dwarf planet. Huh. Surprised you didn't know that ... ;)
Uh, thanks, Laurel Kornfield. Whoever you are. Perhaps I need to return to screening my comments.
I'm a writer and amateur astronomer who has been campaigning to overturn the demotion of Pluto. I meant no harm, just wanted to let you know there is another side to this issue.
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