Even weirder is that it actually got voted out, and by astronomers, not planetary scientists. The IAU redefined what a planet is without taking into account any geophysical characteristics, with Pluto failing not on its small size (it’s no bigger than the continental U.S.), but because it hasn’t “cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.” Debate rages about that, with the last NASA administrator arguing that asteroid come close to all of the “planets” in the solar system.
The IAU also explicitly created a new term—”Pluto-class object.” The term has never been used by planetary scientists.
More noticeably, the demotion of Plutoo had consequences for the authority f the IAU.
“World” is now used instead of “planet” to describe places in the solar system. Few talk about dwarf planets or moons, but instead we hear terms like “icy worlds,” “ocean worlds” and “volcanic worlds.”
What few people remember is why the definition of a planet had to be revisited in 2006. The real reason was a recently discovered object called 2003 UB313, at first nicknamed Xena then later re-named as Eris.
Although it’s usually three times farther out on an eccentric orbit of the Sun, Eris is only very slightly smaller than Pluto. Back in 2006 it was actually thought to be larger than Pluto and it had been thought that Eris could officially get planet-status at the IAU meeting.
3d render of the officialy recognized dwarf planets in our solar system
getty
However, with several other candidate objects found in the early 21st century that were thought to be about the same size as Pluto—since named Makemake, Haumea and Sedna —the IAU thought there was a problem. If Pluto was a planet then so was Eris and all these other objects. Can we have 10 or 15 planets? With ever-advancing technology and new telescopes, how about 50 or 100 planets?
So Pluto was demoted … to keep the numbers down? Perhaps, though it’s also true that all of these objects—including Pluto—are in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy objects around the Sun extending beyond the orbit of Neptune. They also have rather eccentric orbits.
It wasn’t the first time Pluto had been snubbed. The NASA Voyagers’ “Grand Tour” of the solar system’s outer planets stopped short of visiting Pluto in the 1990s after ticking-off Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The same once-in-175-years alignment that made it possible for gravity-assists would have allowed Voyager 2 to continue on to Pluto after rounding Neptune, but NASA scientists prioritized having a look at Neptune’s moon Triton.
Nor was 2006 the first time a planet had been demoted. Go back to 1801 and Ceres—the largest object in the asteroid belt—was discovered and described as the “missing planet” between Mars and Jupiter. Demoted shortly after to being a mere asteroid, the same IAU meeting in 2006 that demoted Pluto upgraded Ceres to dwarf planet status.
It was ironic that while votes were had on the status of the two solar system objects missions to both were at an advanced stage. New Horizons had launched to Pluto in January 2006 while the Dawn mission launched to Ceres just over a year later.
The two “new” dwarf planets were revealed to be so much more than planetary scientists had hoped. Both were revealed to be candidate “ocean worlds” like Europa (a moon of Jupiter) and Enceladus and Titan (moons of Saturn).
When New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015 it revealed a world as intriguing as anywhere else in the solar system.
It showed Pluto to be something beyond every planetary scientists’ wildest dreams—geologically active and possibly also both volcanically and even tectonically active.
Here, 40 times farther from the Sun than the Earth, Pluto was shown to have its own complex atmosphere, organic compounds on its surface and huge faults in its crust. It’s a place of surprising geological complexity with vast nitrogen-ice plains, mountain ranges, dunes and “ice volcanoes.”
Such are the riches discovered at Pluto that it seems unlikely that the IAU could have removed its planet status after New Horizons’ flyby.
Pluto is an intriguing world that deserves a return mission to see if it does have an ocean underneath its ice. Maybe one day we’ll call it an ocean world, though by then there will probably be a new name for that, too.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
