Pluto Demoted

[ffutures]

So... Pluto isn't considered a planet any more, and Ceres, Xena, etc. won't be added to the list of planets.

Seems a bit of a shame, and will probably be about as effective as renaming Brontosaurus as "Apatosaurus" was. It's going to be a LONG time before people stop using the old nomenclature in both cases.

Having said that, I can see the reasons why they've done it - I just wish that they'd left in a "grandfather clause" to keep Pluto as a planet, since it was so much a part of astronomical history.

Comments

Re: Really?

[chocolatescifi.livejournal.com]

As I said before, it goes back to the fact that this didn't start until after Tombaugh's death. It's sooo much easier to start this campaign after his death than to have enough courage of one's convictions to say to Tombaugh, "No, you didn't discover a planet" while he was still alive.