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Provocative title for this Caltech press release. Mike Brown, the co-author of the paper reported here, discovered Eris, a KBO like Pluto, in 2005. This disco
by mturmon 11y ago
Provocative title for this Caltech press release.
Mike Brown, the co-author of the paper reported here, discovered Eris, a KBO like Pluto, in 2005. This discovery prompted the IAU in 2006 to demote Pluto out of the realm of "planet" into a "dwarf planet".
At the time, Alan Stern's New Horizons mission to Pluto had just been launched, it finally arrived last year. Stern was incensed that NH started out as a visitor to the 9th planet and was going to end up as a visitor to one of many KBOs, and not even the largest one (Eris is more massive).
The quotes given at the time (http://www.space.com/2791-pluto-demoted-longer-planet-highly-controversial-definition.html http://www.space.com/2791-pluto-demoted-longer-planet-highly...) are revealing:
"Pluto is dead." -- Mike Brown
"This definition stinks, for technical reasons...It's a farce." -- Alan Stern
For more: http://www.space.com/12709-pluto-dwarf-planet-decision-5-years-anniversary-iau.html http://www.space.com/12709-pluto-dwarf-planet-decision-5-yea...
Stern is visiting Pasadena on a New Horizons victory lap next week. Should be interesting.
- lhorie 11y agoSmall nitpick: "largest" refers to mean radius, "massive" refers to mass (aka weight). Pluto is the second most massive, but it is the largest. (To be fair, it is a very close call: its diameter is only ~25km larger than Eris) I'm excited to see this story unfold, if nothing else because it's fun looking up the mythological[1][2][3] origins of the names given to new celestial bodies :) [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makemake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makemake) [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90377_Sedna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90377_Sedna) [3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haumea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haumea)
- overcast 11y agoMass isn't weight, it's the amount of matter. Weight is the measure of the pull of gravity on mass.
- lhorie 11y agoSorry, you're right. I should've qualified that I meant the colloquial usage of the word "weight".
- ahmedfromtunis 11y agoYou're right, but sorry, it does NOT matter: https://youtu.be/QSIuTxnBuJk https://youtu.be/QSIuTxnBuJk
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- gohrt 11y agoYet another case of ego clashes dominating science.
- mturmon 11y agoEgo and personality have definitely become a factor in this case.
- shkkmo 11y agoThe article quoted Brown as saying "All those people who are mad that Pluto is no longer a planet can be thrilled to know that there is a real planet out there still to be found,"