Thursday, August 24, 2006

Sorry Pluto: You're out!

The International Astronomical Union (or IAU) has decided today in Prague that Pluto shouldn't be considered as a planet anymore because of its different characteristics (it's tiny and its orbit is quite irregular as well); therefore, from now on it should be defined as a dwarf planet.
This decision ends a long controversy held during many years, to decide whether Pluto should be considered as a planet or not. According to many experts, Pluto wouldn't fit the definition of a planet since the very beginning because it's almost the same size as its satellite Charon, thus a better name for this strange phenomenon would be a "binary planet".
In my very own opinion, there's no difference in calling it a planet, a dwarf planet, or a binary planet. The fact is that it actually exists, and it will keep having its same behaviour whether they call it a planet or not. Do you think that the inhabitants in Pluto, if there were any, would be pretty concerned about how do we humans call their planet? I don't think so. I really find ridiculous that scientists waste their time discussing a merely grammatical issue. Instead, they should use their great knowledge an ability to discover new things, develop more projects, and warn us about potential threats that our planet could face in the future, shouldn't they?.

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