Last Updated: August 26, 2006 A.D.
I am feeling sense of sadness today as I came to know that Planet Pluto...
(Picture of Planet Pluto)
Yes, Pluto **IS NOT PART OF** the Solar System Anymore..
(Picture of the Solar System)
We all knew before that, Planet Pluto was discovered by a US Astronomer name Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and of all the Nine Planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) from the Solar System, Planet Pluto was the Smallest Planet. However, I suppose history changes with new technology and scientific developments....
According to a CNN News Article call "Pluto Gets The Boot: Pluto no longer a planet, say astronomers" which was broadcasted in online newspaper in Friday, August 25, 2006; Posted at 1:04 p.m. EDT (17:04 GMT) Time, BBC News Article call "Crunch time for Planet Pluto, (which was Last Updated in Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 15:47 GMT 16:47 UK Time), and another online Article from Turkish Weekly News call "Farewell Pluto?" (which was posted in Wednesday , 03 August 2005 By Alexis Akwagyiram who took source of article 'Farewell Pluto?' from BBC News), Now All the Astronomers seem to agree that there are No Longer Nine Planets in the Solar System.
Matters were brought to a head by the discovery in January of 2005 of a potential 10th planet, temporarily named 2003 UB313. Professor Mike Brown and his team at the California Institute of Technology have already discovered several large objects on the edge of the Solar System, but 2003 UB313 is special because it is bigger than Pluto.The decision which was made by the prestigious international group has spelled out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club. For now, membership of the Solar System will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system which are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for 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." Instead, Pluto will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun -- "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites. As Pluto is already an known as an unusual planet, It is made predominantly of ice, and is smaller even than the Earth's Moon. In 1992, Professor Dave Jewitt and Dr Jane Lu at the University of Hawaii discovered a new collection of objects beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. Some suggest Pluto should no longer be considered a planet, but a Kuiper Belt Object.
As Professor Jewitt says: "We always say we found plus one Kuiper Belt, and minus one planet. And the one we lost, of course, is Pluto."
There are many astronomers who agree with Dave Jewitt and would opt for an eight-planet Solar System, with neither Pluto or 2003 UB313 making the grade; but a number of astronomers are arguing for a more specific definition of a planet. Kuiper Belt researcher Dr Marc Buie, of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, has come up with a clear planetary definition he would like to see the International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopt.
Different categories:
"I believe the definition of planet should be as simple as possible, so I've come up with two criteria," he said.
"One is that it can't be big enough to burn its own matter - that's what a star does. On the small end, I think the boundary between a planet and not a planet should be, is the gravity of the object stronger than the strength of the material of the object? That's a fancy way of saying is it round?"
This definition could lead to a Solar System with as many as 20 planets, including Pluto, 2003 UB313, and many objects previously classified as moons or asteroids. One possible resolution to the debate is for new categories of planet to be introduced. Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars would be "rocky planets". The gas-giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune would be a second category. Pluto, 2003 UB313, and any other objects passing the "roundness test", would be reclassified as a third type of planet - perhaps "icy dwarfs". Dr Brian Marsden, director of the International Astronomy Union's minor planet center, believes the simplest way to resolve the confusion is to reject Pluto's claim to being a planet on the grounds that "size does matter". Instead he says people should accept that "we have eight planets and only an object bigger than Mars could be considered to be a planet in the future".
After reading about all of these facts, i suppose it can be said that Whatever the final outcome be, by September 2006, there Will No Longer Be Nine Planets in the Solar System. So, We can Say Bye Bye to Planet Pluto from the Solar System...:(:(
Source Taken from:
CNN News Article "Pluto gets the boot Pluto no longer a planet, say astronomers"
BBC News Article Crunch time for Planet Pluto
Turkish Weekly News Article 'Farewell Pluto?'
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-- Munmun