[meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet

[Darren Garrison]

On Tue, 02 Aug 2005 20:47:39 -0400, "Dawn & Gerald Flaherty" <grf2 at verizon.net> wrote:

>A thought provoking concept Darren.
>Analagous to seventeenth century religiousity which refused to accept the
>Copernican revolutionary thought?
>Kinda "don't rock the boat cause its too damned complicated and might cause
>a 'panic' for joe sixpac"[that's me by the way before my doctor screwed that
>up] Jerry

Yeah, by the same "give up on defining a planet because a planet is what the general public says it
is" logic, we might as well start calling meteorites meteors, because the general public tends to
call meteorites meteors.  Or we should accept that apes are monkeys, because the general public
calls them monkeys.  Or that pterasaurs are flying dinosaurs, because the general public calls them
flying dinosaurs.  

I say come up with a reasonable definition, and if that disagrees with what the "general public"
thinks, then tell the general public to go sit on a bunsen burner.