A US study showed that the scientific community mistakenly removed Pluto from the list of planets in the solar system in 2006.
Pluto is still debated in the scientific community. A study conducted by American astronomers and recently published in scientific journals Icarus argues that Pluto should not be removed from the list of planets in the solar system. A decision dating back to 2006, following a vote by the International Astronomical Union (UAI).
Today, Pluto is considered a “dwarf planet”. However, this decision has always been criticized by many American experts, which can be explained by the fact that if the star was rehabilitated, it would be the only one found by the United States. In 2018, a study was published by several authors of this new study, with similar conclusions.
Debated definition
The case is not just some American researchers. Jim Bridentsine, NASA administrator between 2018 and 2021, explained to himself in 2019 that he still believed Pluto was a planet. “That’s how I learned it,” he confirmed.
Journal review Icarus criticize the criteria set by UAI. Thus, to be considered a planet, a celestial object must be spherical in shape, orbiting a star and “clearing its orbit”, meaning it is no longer surrounded by other, smaller objects such as rock.
It is at this last point that Pluto does not qualify. Indeed, many objects of similar size to dwarf planets are in the same orbit. If Pluto were to become a planet again, many other objects discovered in the 20th century could also claim it.
“Revisionist History”
According to American scientists, the presence of celestial bodies around a dwarf planet should not be a measure. According to them, the object’s internal characteristics should be the only characteristics to be assessed, and not the activity within its orbit. They also argue that astronomers use the term “planet” for certain distant objects that do not meet the internationally accepted definition, which they argue requires new debate.
UAI should “drop its unscientific definition and stop studying the revisionist history of its origins,” according to the study’s authors.
More than 15 years after the vote, therefore, consensus is still not found on Pluto’s qualifications. It remains to be seen whether the scientific community will in the near future reverse its decision to include a dwarf planet, and, why not, another object, on the list of planets in the solar system.
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