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The Incredible Shrinking Solar System.

Posted by John on August 24th, 2006 at 7:08 am · 8 Comments

This just in: we lost Pluto.

Pluto has been demoted.  That nine planet solar system that served you well as a kid now has only eight planets.

Maybe I’m the only one that thinks this is a big deal.¬† Well maybe not big.¬† A medium-sized deal.

Nothing Earth (or even Pluto) shattering has occurred here.¬† This tiny ball of ice and its three moons (Charon, Nix and Hydra) are still in the same orbit around the Sun.¬† All that’s changed is the label, and it’s probably not a bad idea that the scientific community adjusted things, because there are likely dozens of dirty snowballs out in the cold, dark and distant Kuiper Belt that live in the borderlands of planetary acceptance.

But it does make me think about the power of the scientific community to change our perceptions of the universe and our place in it–not just with new discoveries, but with somewhat arbitrary definitions like this.¬† It also reminds me that scientists make horrible politicians and public relations types.¬† For all their specialized expertise, they seem oblivious to the enormous symbolic power of their decisions.¬† I’m not passing judgment on them–I’m glad that there’s a buffer between public opinion and the scientific endeavor–but it makes me fear for the unfettered pursuit of knowledge in an insecure and superstitious world.

Tags: Science

8 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Chris Rusch // Aug 24, 2006 at 8:07 am

    This is huge. It will cost millions to update science textbooks. Or in the case of some schools in my county, about a hundred dollars in black sharpies, as they have students go through their books, blacking out all references to pluto being a planet.

  • 2 Miko // Aug 24, 2006 at 8:35 am

    I dunno, I guess it’s not a huge deal to me (although I’ll admit I didn’t think of the textbook side of things…), but how often do we hear scientists say, “we discovered something that changes what we’ve always thought and are going to, therefore, change our thinking!” It’s like admitting that the sun is just a star. 20 years from now, kids will think it’s funny that we ever thought an asteroid (okay, KBO) was a planet… I’m curious to see what effect this has on the astrological community. Other KBOs and asteroids are named but rarely merit a mention in, say, the newspaper horoscopes. I wonder if we’ll still see that we have Pluto rising, or something.

  • 3 PodMonkeys // Aug 24, 2006 at 8:45 am

    It makes me feel kind of bummed for the god of the underworld. I rather liked having the ninth planet in our view of the solar system. :P

    Does this actually mean that the “Planets will be aligned” more often than previously?

    On the serious side, I do wonder what goes into these kind of decisions. Do they only look at numbers, or do any social ramafications come into the decision making process? I’ll agree with their decision, but it would be interesting to know what goes on behind the scenes.

  • 4 Watt Mahoun // Aug 24, 2006 at 9:11 am

    No doubt there are some out there who feel betrayed by the reclassification. However, I think this kind of thing is healthy for the public view of what science actually is and there are certainly more dramatic revelations to come. It would be interesting to posit what kind of scientific discoveries would have the same kind of impact on the modern world that Copernicus had. What kind of heresies may be around the corner?

    …it makes me fear for the unfettered pursuit of knowledge in an insecure and superstitious world.

    I think this is a huge concern. Not so much that the views of science are always changing and evolving as that the side-effect is increased insecurity. It seems to me that some religions, like Zen Buddhism, will always do well with such insecurity. It could be time that our religious inclinations evolve.

    The effects of religious evolution could certainly become cataclysmic…but they could also signal a new Renaissance.

  • 5 Elise Johnson // Aug 24, 2006 at 6:54 pm

    Good thing they announced it before the school year started. Otherwise kiddies all over the planet would have to re-do the solar system models they created for science class.

    More seriously, I don’t think re-classifying a planet as something else will cause very much concern among the general public. But it will be interesting to see what other “facts” are changed as scientists find more accurate means of measurement and as technology advances. Personally, I find it exciting, although I see how it could cause fear and a sense of instability in some.

  • 6 John W. // Aug 25, 2006 at 9:20 pm

    There was a fascinating article on the discoverer of some of these new \”dwarf\” planets. I was interested because he\’s about my same age, and found it by sheer perseverance, just looking at portions of the sky that people had overlooked. And then there was some interesting politics about his holding off to announce the discoveries because his wife was about to have a baby, and he wanted to have time to hold a press conference with all of his research on them completed. But then, it turns out, someone (without him knowing it) posted his research online, and some Spanish team of astronomers ran across it, checked his coordinates, and then announced that THEY had discovered the planets. But they were able to trace that someone from that same Spanish URL had visited the site where his research had been put up without his permission.

  • 7 Caroline T. // Aug 28, 2006 at 8:03 am

    The Pluto ordeal is a big deal at the museum. We’re going to have to change some of our labels!

    My boss attended the IAU convention in Prague. He abstained from the vote, but was an eyewitness to all the events. I’ll have to get the rundown from him when he returns from Europe.

  • 8 Starfoxy // Aug 30, 2006 at 7:06 pm

    My university was in the same town as (and closely associated with) Lowell Observatory, which is where Pluto was discovered. The astronomers there were opposed to the change in classification (or at least they were 2 years ago when I was still there) because they lose some prestige right along with Pluto. I found it most interesting because all of them were of the opinion that Pluto is indeed an overgrown snowball, but they were very aware of the implications for the observatory and their careers.

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