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"Discovering new planets" only has the cachet it does because there are so few of them, and they are individually so significant. It would quickly lose that sig

"Discovering new planets" only has the cachet it does because there are so few of them, and they are individually so significant. It would quickly lose that significance if there were hundreds of them. To be precise, it would acquire exactly the significance it actually deserves, but having diluted the meaning of "planet" as applied to the big eight in the process. We would soon want another name for the originals to compensate. We can still be reasonably excited about discovering new things in the solar system without pretending they're in the same category as Earth and Neptune.

odyssey7 25d ago
With or without the IAU definition, you still end up with innumerable planets. Scientists regularly claim to have found planets orbiting other stars. They do this even though they have no way to verify that their neighborhoods have been cleared. And yes, you can decide that some particular things are special. That’s why culture is a big part of this. Many people consider Pluto to be special even though they are well aware that it’s not the only one out there, and that’s why they refer to it as a planet. The idea that there would be too many planets isn’t really a problem that needed solving. Would we start classifying every dinosaur as either a T-Rex or a triceratops because otherwise there would be too many dinosaurs? It’s plainly ridiculous.