Download Pluto evidence

Pluto Evidence
Evidence 1:
Pluto should be called a planet for cultural and
historical reasons. We have been calling it a planet for
decades, and this means that it is a planet. When
something has been called a planet for many, many years,
it would be wrong to suddenly say that it is not a planet any
more.
Evidence 2:
Years ago, my astronomy professor told me a planet has two properties.
First, a planet is a non-self-luminous round object. A self
luminous object is an object that produces its own light,
like the sun. So a non-self-luminous object is an object
like the earth that does not produce light. Pluto is a nonself-luminous object.
Second, a planet is an object that orbits a star. Pluto
orbits the sun, which is a star. Therefore, Pluto is a
planet.
Evidence 3:
Pluto is not a planet because it has not cleared out its local neighborhood. When
a planet has cleared its local neighborhood, there are no other objects flying
where it orbits. Any object that passes near the planet either gets pulled into the
planet or gets flung away by the planet.
Because the planet’s gravity is so strong, it either
pulls in small objects (causing the planet itself to
get larger) or it slingshots the smaller object away,
sending it far away.
That is why big planets in our Solar System do not have anything near them
except for moons. Pluto does not meet the important criteria of clearing its
neighborhood and therefore is not a planet. There are lots of objects that pass by
Pluto’s orbit. Lots of objects in the Kuiper Belt pass near Pluto. Pluto’s gravity is
not strong enough either to pull these objects in or fling them away.
Evidence 4:
Re-naming Pluto to a dwarf planet is a very bad
decision that makes people less interested in
astronomy. Now everyone is disappointed with
scientists, because people feel cheated that
Pluto is not a planet anymore. Adding new
planets would excite the public. Taking planets
away is bad for science.
Evidence 5:
The new definition says that Pluto is not a planet because it has not cleared its
neighborhood of smaller objects (except moons). In other words, there are many
smaller objects that move around in the same area as Pluto.
But there are at least three other
planets that have not cleared their
neighborhoods of smaller objects.
Saturn has rings made of many, many
small objects. Saturn has not cleared
these out of its orbit yet.
Jupiter also has rings. Jupiter has thus
not cleared its orbit.
Pluto regularly crosses Neptune’s orbit. Therefore, Neptune has not cleared its
orbit, either.
But it makes no sense to say that Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune are not planets!
So we should allow Pluto to be a planet, too.
Evidence 6:
The demotion of Pluto was done in a political way, not a scientific way. The
definition adopted was done so on the last day of
the IAU's two-week conference by 4% of its
members, most of whom are astronomers who do
not specialize in planets. No electronic voting was
allowed, so the 96% of IAU members not present
in the room had no vote. Immediately after the
vote to classify Pluto as a “dwarf planet,” over 300
professional astronomers signed a petition saying
they will not use the new definition. The vote to
classify Pluto as a dwarf planet was not a legitimate vote. Pluto is still a planet.
Evidence 7:
They say that Pluto is a dwarf planet, not a planet. But saying that
a dwarf planet is not a planet is silly. It is like saying that a grizzly
bear is not a bear. Pluto is a planet.
Evidence 8:
Pluto is composed mostly of frozen nitrogen. If Pluto
were orbiting near the sun, it would quickly vaporize.
There would be nothing left! The other small planets
(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are rocky. They would not
be vaporized by the sun, even if they orbited close to the
sun. (And Mercury does orbit close to the sun.)
Comets are also made of substances that are vaporized by the sun. Pluto is
more like comets than planets. Pluto should not be counted as a planet.