Eight's Enough

Well, it is official. Pluto is no longer a planet, at least for now. I have been telling my students for years that it should have never been classified as a planet, and each time they looked at me like I was silly. For those of you who don't keep up with these things, the International Astronomical Union met yesterday to clarify the definition of a planet. Pluto along with an asteroid called Ceres and several other objects are now referred to as "Dwarf Planets." When I asked my students today what they thought about this, one of them said, "I feel betrayed!"

Of course, I just can't leave this post without giving you something more (that's why you keep reading my blog, right?) So here goes:

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. When it was first disovered, people assumed it was much bigger than it actually is. In Greek mythology, Pluto is the god of the underworld--not too fitting for a cold, desolate rock smaller than our own moon. Okay, all pretty boring, right? Well, my dad reminded me that Pluto had actually been mathematically predicted years before its telescopic discovery by an astronomer named Percival Lowell. Now, if my memory serves correctly (and Google says it does), before he made the prediction, Lowell believed the markings he had observed on the planet Mars must have been huge canals built by intelligent beings. H.G. Wells ran with this idea, creating the "War of the Worlds," which would send our nation into panic nearly three decades later with the now famous radio broadcast. I'm glad Percival Lowell was not right about both predictions. I want to believe there is life on other planets, but Mars is just too close! Isn't it neat how so many things in science are related?