The Misfit Planet
27 Jul
I have a tendency to root for the underdog. That’s probably why I always liked Pluto. As the final planet discovered, it never really fit in with the other guys. It’s significantly smaller than the other planets, it has an odd elliptical orbit, and its innermost moon, Charon, is larger than any other planet’s moon in relative size to its host.
As it turns out, all of things that make Pluto quirky and unique also contributed to its demotion from a full-fledged planet to a lowly “dwarf planet”. I never understood why Pluto was booted out of planetary status, and honestly, I never looked into it – probably because I was secretly hoping that scientists would come to their senses and reinstate the little (non) planet that could.
A few days ago, I was battling yet another bout of insomnia and sick of the usual late night TV fare. In desperation, I turned to Netflix and found a documentary that I had added to my Instant Queue and forgotten about. It was The Pluto Files, a PBS documentary produced in conjunction with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s book of the same name.
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson [found here]
Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. In 2000, the Hayden Planetarium was embroiled in controversy when a reporter attending the grand opening of the planetarium’s recent renovation noticed there were only eight planets on the new planetary model. Instead, Pluto had been relegated to a pin dot on a display about icy objects in the furthest reaches of our solar system. Written as a human interest piece for the New York Times, the article resulted in Tyson being deluged with angry letters from Pluto-lovers all over the world.
While he knew there would be some resistance, Tyson was surprised by the emotional connection that many had with Pluto. His book and the subsequent documentary documents his efforts to find out why people love Pluto and to explain why it is no longer viewed as an official planet.
Two of the biggest reasons for Pluto’s demotion are its size (1/20th the mass of the second smallest planet, Mercury) and its strange orbit. Pluto’s orbit is tipped by 17º – significantly more than any of the other planets. It’s also elliptical, which forces Pluto to cross Neptune’s orbit, something that none of the other planets do. In another blow, Charon is so large compared with Pluto that they both orbit the same point in space.
The final nail in the coffin was the discovery of Eris in 2005 by Mike Brown (@plutokiller). Although the media was touting his find as “the tenth planet”, Brown was reluctant to confirm Eris’s planetary status. The similarity to Pluto, both in size and structure, and the confusion over its designation led the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to vote on a change to the official definition of the term “planet”, which included the provision that a planet “must clear the neighborhood around its orbit”. Pluto exists in the Kuiper Belt, which is full icy objects. Because of its diminutive size, Pluto is not massive enough to clear its orbit. The change in definition had officially nullified Pluto’s planetary status.
Mike Brown, Pluto Killer [found here]
There are scientists who hold firm to Pluto’s planetary status, however. Planetary scientist Mark Sykes (of the Planetary Science Institute at the University of Arizona) still considers Pluto a planet. He points out that Pluto is spherical (unlike asteroids, which have an irregular shape) and includes many of the common planetary traits – atmospheres, a textured surface with bright and dark areas, and several moons. In the days following the IAU’s vote, hundreds of scientists signed a petition refusing to recognize the new definition. One of these scientists and a recognized expert on Pluto, Alan Stern, thinks that the new definition is bogus. “[Clearing a zone] is all about location, and location’s for realtors, not scientists. I don’t think it counts at all in terms of what it means to be a planet.” He believes that dwarf planets should be given full planetary status. “I think a decent analogy is, when you see a chihuahua, it’s still a dog because it has all the characteristics of the canine species – just in miniature.”
Alan Stern [found here]
I don’t pretend to have scientific reasons for wanting Pluto to be a planet. I love Pluto because I identify with its misfit status and I don’t believe it should be discounted because of a few little quirks. The things that the IAU believes make Pluto not worthy of planetary status make it special in the eyes of all who love it for (not in spite of) its uniqueness. Loving Pluto is the epitome of celebrating something that is both awesome (in the truest sense of the word) and unusual. And I am not alone. People, from fictional theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper (on “The Big Bang Theory”) to real-life geek musician Jonathan Coulton, have professed their love of Pluto and their outrage at its demotion.
Five Things You Should Know About Pluto
5. It was named by Venetia Burney, an eleven year old British school girl who was fascinated by astronomy and Greek and Roman mythology. She believed that, as the name for the Roman god of the underworld, it was an appropriate name for the dark, icy planet. Her grandfather, Falconer Madan passed it onto the Lowell Observatory (the site of Pluto’s discovery) and it received a unanimous vote on March 24, 1930.
Venetia Burney [found here]
4. Although there is no direct evidence proving so, many family members, former employees, and colleagues of Walt Disney believe that his fascination with space led him to name Mickey Mouse’s faithful dog after the most recently discovered planet.
Pluto and Pluto [found here]
3. A fourth moon was recently discovered orbiting Pluto. Temporarily being called P4, the first images of the newest moon were taken on June 28th (my birthday!). P4′s discoverer, Michael Showalter, has hinted that “Cerberus” (the three-headed guard dog of the underworld) is being considered for the moon’s name.
2. A spacecraft, “New Horizons”, is headed to Pluto right now. Launched in 2005, it will reach Pluto by 2015. New Horizons will photograph the surface of Pluto and its moons and send the information back to NASA. The spacecraft contains the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto.
1. Clyde Tombaugh was an Illinois-born farmer who built telescopes and did astronomical drawings in his spare time. He sent the drawings and telescope plans to the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. He was hired by the observatory in 1929 and given the task of searching for “Planet X”, a celestial body whose location was predicted by Percival Lowell, the founder of the Lowell Observatory. Using a blink comparator, Tombaugh studied photographs of the night sky and identified a small, bright object moving slowly across the sky. Prior to the discovery of Pluto, Tombaugh had no college education or formal astronomical training.
Clyde Tombaugh [found here]
Bonus Features: Alan Stern’s “In Defense of Pluto”
Q & A with Mike Brown, Pluto Killer [Part 1 & 2]
