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It is well-known that the New Horizons PI, Alan Stern, had a strong distaste for the "demotion" of Pluto. (An extreme example, this interview: http://www.space
by mturmon 11y ago
It is well-known that the New Horizons PI, Alan Stern, had a strong distaste for the "demotion" of Pluto. (An extreme example, this interview: http://www.space.com/12710-pluto-defender-alan-stern-dwarf-planet-interview.html http://www.space.com/12710-pluto-defender-alan-stern-dwarf-p..., which is rather ... over the top in terms of its arguments.)
- yellowapple 11y agoI actually think his core argument - that a "planet" should be determined by its physical characteristics rather than where its orbit happens to lie - is pretty reasoned and grounded in logic. I'm on his side about the whole "clearing the neighborhood" criterion; it's totally arbitrary, and has less to do with the object itself than it does with where that object lives.