Pluto Voted Off the Island

Talk about no respect. It seems the International Astronomical Union decided yesterday that Pluto no longer makes the grade under their new rules for what constitutes a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." I mean COME ON, no celestial body is perfect!

Pluto has had planetary status since its discovery in 1930 (think of the millions of textbooks, exhibits and planetarium shows that will need to be changed, not to mention having to abandon my elementary school mnemonic for remembering the names of the 9 planets: “My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles” - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto--pretty good, eh?). Does Mickey Mouse now have to change the name of his dog to Uranus? Actually, the dog debuted in 1930 as Rover, dog to Minnie Mouse. But Mickey and the dog hit it off, Rover became Pluto in honor of the planet, and Mickey became his master.

Now the IAU has decided (in their infinite wisdom) that The-Planet-Formerly-Known-As-Pluto be reclassified in to a new category called: “dwarf planets,” previously called “minor planets” (and to add insult to injury, not even capitalized). Who died and made these guys boss?

Well, Pluto, from one little girl who helped her Dad build a backyard telescope in the early 1960’s and spent many a wondrous evening exploring the heavens, I want you to know that some of us will always think planet size doesn’t matter.