[meteorite-list] Planets Galore

From: Francis Graham <francisgraham_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Aug 17 07:31:24 2006
Message-ID: <20060817113122.52825.qmail_at_web54709.mail.yahoo.com>

Dear List:
  I enjoyed the debate and conversation on this list
on the subject of what a definition of a planet is. It
was not acrimonious and personal, and was very
interesting and worthwhile.
  Many of us do not care if Ceres is a planet or even
if the old Apollo rocket stages are called planets
--well, maybe I stretch it there--, the important
thing is to have a definition of a term that must be
used in scholarly journals and go on. Of course common
usage will differ from the IAU definition, and that is
OK. After all, we still speak of sunrise and sunset,
although we no longer regard the Universe as
Ptolemaic.
  As for astrologers, some will be confused and some
will see it as a bonanza. That is their concern. This
list is concerned with the scientific study and other
aspects of meteorites, and the definition of planet is
important to this list because meteorites can come
from some of these bodies.
  The worst possible outcome is to have no definition
approved. If the definition is later shown to be
faulty, or fails to optimally facilitate the
communication of scientific results, it can be
ammended later.
  There is an analogy to this confusion. In some
states of the USA people are permitted to marry at a
young age. Having done so, they move to another state
without such laws, and are arrested for sex crimes.
While this is much more a serious non-uniformity
problem than the definition of a planet, it adequately
illustrates the problem that nonuniformity creates.
What one journal calls a planet another will not
allow, this is akin to the young-marriage problem. A
popular science writer would have to have a separate
list of acceptable planets for each editor. It is
better to have even a mediocre uniformity than
confusion. And by no means am I necessarily calling
the proposed definition mediocre. It was clearly
carefully thought out by many people. But even if it
were mediocre, I would still favor it because it would
end confusion on the issue.
   Mars with his war chariot, Jupiter with his
thunder, it is nice to have little farmer Ceres
finally joining the retinue.

Francis Graham


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Received on Thu 17 Aug 2006 07:31:22 AM PDT