Report: IAU group to recommend keeping Pluto as planet
Posted: Fri, Aug 11, 2006, 8:44 AM ET (1244 GMT)
A working group is expected to recommend to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that Pluto be retained as a planet, opening the door for other solar system objects to also be designated as planets. NPR reported this week that the group will likely report at an IAU meeting later this month in Prague that Pluto retain its designation as a planet, and that a new class of planets, perhaps called "dwarf planets", be created. That class of planets would include Pluto, possibly the largest asteroids, and a number of the new large objects discovered in the outer solar system. Pluto's classification as a planet has been questioned for the last several years as large icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt and beyond have been found. At least one of those objects, nicknamed Xena, is now believed to be larger that Pluto.
A working group is expected to recommend to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that Pluto be retained as a planet, opening the door for other solar system objects to also be designated as planets. NPR reported this week that the group will likely report at an IAU meeting later this month in Prague that Pluto retain its designation as a planet, and that a new class of planets, perhaps called "dwarf planets", be created. That class of planets would include Pluto, possibly the largest asteroids, and a number of the new large objects discovered in the outer solar system. Pluto's classification as a planet has been questioned for the last several years as large icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt and beyond have been found. At least one of those objects, nicknamed Xena, is now believed to be larger that Pluto.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Starship explodes during preparations for static-fire test
Posted: Sun, Jun 22 6:52 AM ET (1052 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Wednesday, June 25
US Space Command’s Gen. Whiting talks Golden Dome, EW and China’s space-based kill chain
Breaking Defense — 6:25 am ET (1025 GMT) Space partners eye secure future
Australian Government — 6:24 am ET (1024 GMT) How we protected the UK and space in May 2025
UK Space Agency — 6:23 am ET (1023 GMT) Space Development Agency accelerates launch of first experimental tactical SATCOM satellite
Defensescoop — 6:21 am ET (1021 GMT) Secretive Space RCO Plans to Launch First ‘Full-Up’ Satellites Soon
Air and Space Forces Magazine — 6:21 am ET (1021 GMT) |
