A team of scientists wants Pluto classified as a planet again — along with dozens of similar bodies in the solar system and any found around distant stars.
Summary
- A team of scientists wants Pluto classified as a planet again — along with dozens of similar bodies in the solar system and any found around distant stars.
- The researchers say Pluto should instead be classified as a planet under a definition used by scientists since the 16th century: that “planets” are any geologically active bodies in space.
- As well as Pluto, that definition includes many other objects — the asteroid Ceres, for example, and the moons Europa, Enceladus and Titan.
- That’s what stuck with people, and that’s a real shame.”The researchers argue the IAU definition contradicted a definition of a planet that had stood for centuries.
- “We are continuing to call Pluto a planet in our papers, we are continuing to call Titan and Triton and some other moons by the term ‘planet’,” he said.