Pluto is a planet!
No it’s not!
You scoundrel, How can you say such thing?!
That’s it, the wedding is off!
Last week I wrote a short column for Forbes bombastically demanding that folks “Quit Whining” about Pluto not being a planet. I wrote the piece because NASA chief Jared Isaacman recently suggested maybe Pluto’s demotion from planet-hood should get a review. I was responding… very tongue-in-cheek - that everyone should just get over it. Pluto is not a planet.
What I was actually doing was using the “controversy” to get people thinking about the idea that there’s more to the solar system than just planets. In the last few decades we’ve come to realize that there is a lot pristine material left over from the origin of the solar system living out beyond Neptune’s orbit.
Well, it looks like I kicked a hornet’s nest.
There was a lot of give and take on social media about my piece with some people calling me a mean person. I didn’t apologize but I did let folks know I was kidding. My intention was to create a discussion on a topic we could all argue about that both mattered and did not.
It mattered because there is some really cool science involved. How do solar systems form? How did we get the mistaken idea that “solar systems equals planets”? What lies beyond Neptune and how did it shape solar system history?
What doesn’t matter is our tendency to see everything in terms of “us” vs “them”, our tribe vs their tribe. In the end, I’ll be OK if Pluto gets put back in the planet club. But how refreshing it is to have an argument where the stakes are only our commitment to be dazzled by the world’s beauty.
I will let Bill Murray have the last word, as he always should.
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PS If you have specific questions or issues you want me to address leave a comment on the website or email me at [email protected]
— Adam Frank 🚀
