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

[Chris Peterson]

No, they don't have the authority to redefine words that are in common 
usage and found in ordinary dictionaries. That is quite different from 
defining the proper name of bodies, craters, etc. Their definitions are 
more akin to recommendations than anything binding; I can quite legally 
call any astronomical object anything I want; of course, it probably 
won't be accepted by many!

In this case, what they are actually doing is overloading the word 
"planet". That is, they are creating a new definition in addition to 
those already in use. As a rule, I think overloading words in this way 
is a bad idea since it is likely to lead to confusion. IMO the wise 
thing to do would be to worry about the subcategories, which are what 
really matter (e.g. terrestrial body, icy body, gas giant, etc). The 
parent category of all these probably doesn't need a rigorously defined 
name at all, but if given one should be something other than "planet". 
In any case such bodies lie along a continuum of spherocity, barycenter 
location, etc; attempting a rigorous definition of something that is 
probably not definable is just asking for trouble.

One of the goals of creating nomenclature should be to avoid breaking 
things to the greatest extent possible. If this proposal is adopted, it 
breaks countless books and publications. On the other hand, adopting a 
new word to describe the sort of bodies we think of as "planets" would 
break very little; new publications would simply be a little more 
precise than older ones. Definitions should be backwards compatible!

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; 
"Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
Cc: "Larry Lebofsky" <lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 3:24 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 'Plutons' Push Planet Total Up To 12


Hi, Chris, List,

    Actually, the IAU does have the authority, beyond the support of
every working scientist in the field. The IAU was founded in 1918/9 to
clear up a horrific mess of everybody naming the SAME Lunar and
Martian features with their own choice of names, so that you had to
refer to "the crater Prof. X calls Backscat and Prof. Y calls Gribniz
but Prof. Z calls Tinkerbelle" for anyone to know what feature you're
talking about.

    Under a whole array of International Treaties, most of which
the US is signatory to, they are designated to be the official arbiter
of this and that, so many times and in so many treaties, that their
authority is virtually statutory.  For example, the GPS  timing would
be impossible with the geodetic-celestial coordinate transfer, which
they defined and implemented. Would you like to be flying around
the world and have the GPS system change at every national border?
No thanks. The list of things they do that are essential and absolutely
necessary is very long.

    They're not the Académie Française; they're a lot more
authoritative! All the Académie Française does is try to bully
the French into talking like it's the eighteenth century. Prithee,
what harm in that, sirrah? And while I like to tease them,
like any European French Model bureaucracy, they do a
huge service and this nomenclature debate is actually quite
a unique and rare return to their roots in the midst of all the
snazzy things they do. (Did I just call them "snazzy"?)

    And the ordinary users of English are common-sense
people; they're not going use names for things that are not
common to all listeners and other talkers. If most people
call Ceres a planet, after a while everybody will. I predict
that in 2015, when the highly detailed images flow back from
the Dawn Mission and a new and strange and fascinating
world unfolds, everybody will be talking about the "planet"
Ceres.

    I think of it as "Dangerfield's World." It don't get no
respect. But that'll change.


Sterling K. Webb