This is a letter to the editor I published at the Daily Advance. Posted here for posterity, since they have no online archive:
I am outraged at the International Astronomical Union’s ridiculous decision to demote Pluto to the status of “dwarf planet.” The new criteria defining planets, that the celestial object has a clear orbital path, is vague, inconsistent and scientifically sloppy.
According to this new definition, Pluto is not a planet because its orbit crosses Neptune’s orbit. Then doesn’t that mean Neptune is a “dwarf planet” for crossing paths with Pluto? Galileo must be spinning in his grave at this illogical and highly political decision.
Of the IAU’s 10,000 members, only 4 percent were present for the vote, which was cast on the last day of the conference after many members had already left. The vote was essentially hijacked by a group of dynamists: astronomers who study the motion and gravitational effects of celestial objects, who were offended that planetary geologists had so much influence on the previous week’s definition, which added three new planets to our solar system, rather than eliminating a heavenly body we’ve accepted as a planet for 76 years now.
Pluto, Charon, Ceres, and UB313 all have sufficient gravity to pull them into a round shape and they do not orbit other planets; therefore, they are planets. The IAU must reinstate Pluto as a planet immediately before its credibility suffers and future generations of scientists look back on the 2006 conference as the day scientific integrity was abandoned because of intellectual hubris.
RYAN SOMMA
Elizabeth City