[meteorite-list] 'Plutons' Push Planet Total Up To 12

From: Larry Lebofsky <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Aug 16 07:09:35 2006
Message-ID: <1155726571.44e2fceb68855_at_hindmost.LPL.Arizona.EDU>

Hi Daren:

I am reading these backwards, so have waded through Sterling's comments.
Again, I was not on the committee, but have been (because of the Division for
Planetary Sciences Committee) "briefed" by Rick Binzel who was on the
committee and who we questioned.

Plutons: a class of planets. The committee used a star analogue like T-Tauri
stars or Cepheid variables. So Plutons are PLANETS with orbital periods
greater than 200 years. So, Pluto is a planet, it is a pluton, it is a KBO,
and it is a TNO!

Ceres, as far as I can tell (do not know this for sure) will just be a planet.
Since terrestrial and jovian (or gas giant) are not recognized by the IAU (see
their Q&A), it is not a terrestrial planet (at least officially). So, there
are the "classical" planets (not an offical term) and the plutons (an official
term). Poor Ceres is in neither. IAU does use the term dwarf planet, but that
will not be an official term. Also "minor planet" goes away. Asteroids and
comets are now "small Solar System bodies." This just removes the word planet
from anything that is not a planet. Sounds good to me.

Larry
Received on Wed 16 Aug 2006 07:09:31 AM PDT