Planetary thoughts

For whatever reason, I've never felt strongly one way or the other about whether Pluto should be termed a planet. Others, clearly, feel strongly about leaving "their" solar system unaltered.

Notable and intelligent commentary at the Space Review; here's a very brief excerpt of its conclusion:

What if, though, the IAU had taken a different approach? Perhaps astronomers could have decided not to make a formal definition of the term “planet”, finding it to be too general and vague. . .

The IAU chose not to take that route, at least this time around, leaving us with the mess we have today, the result of the collision of scientific discoveries about our solar system with the expectation from popular culture about the number of planets the solar system “should” have. Abandoning the generic term “planet” for several more specific classes might not seem very simple or elegant, but has the advantage of offering a better description of the nature of our solar system, and potentially other solar systems as well. Winning the general public over to such a system might be difficult, but as the last few days have shown, even a modest change like demoting Pluto will generate a strong reaction. If we’re going to raise the ire of the public by reclassifying the solar system, we might as well do it for a good cause, and with a strong scientific basis.

Meanwhile, at Dienekes' Anthropology Blog a comparison is drawn between the astronomers' dilemma defining a planet and that of anthropologists defining race:

Is there really any differences between the astronomer's problem and that of the racial taxonomist? He, too, must decide whether or not a particular human individual belongs to a category, a race, say, whether or not someone is a Caucasoid. He can easily accept a necessary condition (a) that the individual must be human.

But, any additional criteria, e.g., a prominent nose or heavy facial hair are ultimately subjective. Indeed, people disagree about the criteria used to decide whether or not one is a Caucasoid or not. Borderline peoples such as some Central Asian Turks, Indians, or some Northwest and Northeast Africans are assigned by some to the Caucasoid race, by others to different races or are considered in-between races, just as dwarf-planets like Pluto inhabit an intermediate zone between the newly-hatched categories of "planet" and "small solar-system body".

More reading on races and racial classification at the Race FAQ.

Posted by David on August 29, 2006 9:20 AM