The Politics of Pluto
Is Pluto a planet or not? Many astronomers are up in arms over the declaration of the International Astronomical Union that Pluto, along with a couple other heavenly bodies, are not planets. Pluto has been considered the ninth planet since its discovery in 1930, so why the change? Is it because scientists discovered that Pluto didn't fit the established definition of a planet?
No. There never has been an established definition of a planet, until now. And a number of scientists don't like it. Is this a matter of scientific debate on the validity of observational and experimental evidence, or is this pure politics?
Alan Stern, a planetary scientist in Boulder, Colorado who organized a petition of hundreds of U.S. scientists opposed to the IAU decision, claims it's politics.
"The IAU can say the sky is green all day long and that doesn't make it so," said Stern. (See article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060901/sc_nm/space_pluto_dc)
But Stern's statement would imply that there is "one right answer" to the question. But there isn't. Dividing non-planetary heavenly bodies from planetary ones is a matter of an arbitrary perspective. Make one defintion, and Pluto and the others are planets. Define it differently, and they aren't.
Before human beings discovered, defined and named Pluto, it followed its course through the heavens. After they discovered it and called it the ninth planet, it followed its course through the heavens. Now that scientists say it is not a planet, it follows its course through the heavens. And if they declare it a planet once again, it will still follow its course through the heavens.
Changing the definition of reality doesn't change reality, only our perspective. And that's what this debate is really all about.
Comments
A lot of science is that way but what isn't? People don't just argue about definiations they kill each other over them.
Posted by: Green Allen | September 3, 2006 03:36 AM
I'm sorry but it's like who cares? What's the dif?
Posted by: GreenEyedBaby | September 5, 2006 04:03 AM
People do kill each other over their perspective of reality--good point. For a fun story on this, see Reverend Loveshade's "Five Blind Men and an Elephant"
Posted by: Alden Loveshade | September 6, 2006 06:11 PM