Sunday, August 13, 2006

Reclassifying Pluto

Poor Pluto. It may no longer be considered in the same class as its solar siblings.

From the LiveScience.com blog:

Several of the panel members favor dividing round objects up as terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) and a third class that would include Pluto, NPR reported. “We’ll call them dwarf planets or something,” said Iwan Williams, an astronomer at the University of London who served on the panel, according to NPR.

This seems reasonable. Pluto never did fit in with the other eight planets, and it really seems to be something that should be in a different classification. Either way, perhaps that parasite movement can now be forever dissociated from Gustav Holst's masterpiece.

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