Why Is Neptune Qualified?
By AndrewHyman Posted in Humor — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I don't think Senate judicial confirmation hearings should focus exclusively on legal matters. The sanity and acumen of nominees can be tested by a variety of questions. For example, consider this about the International Astronomical Union (IAU), courtesy of the Boston Globe:
The IAU determined last week that a planet must orbit the sun and be large enough to assume a nearly round shape, as well as "clear the neighborhood around its orbit." Pluto's oblong orbit overlaps Neptune's, which led the IAU to downsize the solar system to eight planets from the traditional nine....[A] petition opposing the IAU definition of a planet is circulating among the world's planetary scientists and astronomers.
Obviously, Neptune hasn't been able to clear Pluto out of its path, so why should Neptune be deemed a planet? What are those people at the International Astronomical Union smoking? Any nominee who agrees with the IAU on this should be deemed presumptively insane. Why hasn't the President weighed in on this?
More below the fold....
The text of the IAU resolution is here. Professor Mike Brown of CalTech defends the IAU, although he claims to be "in mourning" for Pluto:
While a lawyer could make a case that Pluto has not been cleared by Neptune, the concept and intent of the definition is sound, and Neptune's total domination of Pluto's dynamics is actually an excellent demonstration of precisely the concept the definition is meant to convey.
According to the BBC, this guy Brown is responsible for the entire debacle. The BBC also notes that only 10% of the astronomers in Prague for the IAU conference showed up to vote on this question. Have these people never heard of a QUORUM requirement?
By the way, Pluto and Neptune will never collide. Wikipedia has lots more on the whole controversy. If the IAU wants to write a good definition that yields eight "planets" then fine, but the definition they adopted treats Pluto and Neptune the same.
Does the Chairman of the IAU
by BillM
Does the Chairman of the IAU think Brownie's doing a heckuva job?
In a nutshell, I think Pluto's main problems are how small it is, not much bigger than it's 'moon', Charon; and also the fact that Pluto & Charon revolve around EACH OTHER, rather than how the Moon revolves around Earth.
Bottom line was that if you leave Pluto a planet you'd have to make lots of other objects planets too, though I know Chief Roberts isn't wild about that kind of reasoning....
And BTW, shouldn't the Moon have a name? I mean it IS a moon, but compared to Io, Titan, or Europa, it's hardly THE moon. Do you think the Jovians or Venusians call it "the moon"? Hardly.
I propose "Rehnquistina".
Or "Tiger". :)
It really is a sslow news day today. Hey andrew,what about a post on the santorum casey debate, i am pretty interested in how the whole thing went trough. thanks.
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