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

[Martin Altmann]

But should the soap fit in the box or should the box be fitting for the
soap??

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet


> >
> >     Two, 2003UB313 IS a planet under the "rules" that were in effect at
> > the time of discovery.
>
> There is no formal definition for a planet, and that it the crux of the
> problem. The IAU will be providing a formal definition soon.
>
> >You don't change the rules after the game is over
> > because you don't like the outcome, not even in Paris (or do you?).
>
> It is not a game, it is just a classification, which is being modified
> to accomodate the latest data.  Just look at how meteorites are
classified.
> We would like to classify each meteorite cleanly into its own subgroup.
> But we occasionaly run into a meteorite that doesn't fit very well
> in the current classification scheme, so we temporarily label
> it as 'anomolous'.  We eventually modify the classification to
> accomodate these anomolous meteorites, usually by creating a new subgroup,
or
> expanding the definition of an existing subgroup.  Same thing with the
planets.
> We have a few anomolous objects that don't fit very in the current
> classification, which was poorly defined to begin with.  We are going
> through a process of reclassifcation based on the latest data, which
> was long overdue.
>
> Ron Baalke
>
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