It’s crunch week for Pluto, that far off planet that we all learned about in elementary school science classes, may find itself stripped of planetary status by August 25th.
A gathering of 3,000 astronomers and scientists are set to meet in Prague to kick around the idea of kicking Pluto out of the planetary club. Pluto gained its admission back in 1930, when a dog in the employ of the Walt Disney Company discovered it (oh, ok I made that up).
Actually the planet did receive its planetary deed back in 1930, but the debate as to whether it deserves to be listed with the big players like Mars, Saturn and Jupiter has raged on since our abilities to see into space have increased.
With the advent of the Hubble Telescope the farthest planet from the Sun has been revealed to possibly be a bit of a fraud, nothing more than a hunk of space rock and ice only one four hundredths the size of the earth.
The calls for its banishment from the list of planets gained momentum when UB 313 was discovered a few years ago, named Xena (guess what TV shows scientists watch?) it is larger than Pluto and so the debate goes should replace the teeny weenie one on the big list. In short, UB 313 is something of a celestial troublemaker for those fans of Pluto.
The debate has picked up speed as it seems is that are more than a dozen other celestial bodies floating around in space that also are larger than Pluto, leading to the possibility of up to 12 or more planets being added to the curriculum and sending science students over the edge when studying the new testament of space.
The meetings in Prague are supposed to settle the debate once and for all, though some are urging that they keep the order as it is. They are suggesting that dumping Pluto and adding a bunch of new planets to the solar system will only lead to chaos.
And we all know that scientists don’t like chaos!
Order is what they crave; and this week Pluto is causing a major disruption in the Force.
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