Race to discover Planet Nine using astronomy and new computational techniques

Re:Race to discover Planet Nine using astronomy and new comp... by scott_s on Tuesday August 01, 2017 @09:57AM (#14900610)

I'm confused by your parenthetical, as the definition that excludes Pluto (and Eris) was arrived at by the International Astronomical Union (https://www.iau.org/).

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Re:Race to discover Planet Nine using astronomy and new comp... by Robotbeat on Tuesday August 01, 2017 @11:22PM (#14907684)

IAU is made of astronomers (i.e. People who study stars and stuff), not so many planetary scientists (who specifically study planets).

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Re:Race to discover Planet Nine using astronomy and new comp... by scott_s on Wednesday August 02, 2017 @09:16AM (#14910257)

I think it's fair to define planets based on an astronomical perspective; it's clear that Pluto, Eris and things like it, astronomically, belong to a different class than the other planets. Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet. If we didn't "demote" it to a dwarf planet, then we would have to define a new term for the existing planets.

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