Defining "Planet" IV
I won't promise that this is the last posting on the topic, but two consequences of the IAU resolutions have come to my attention.
First, the Minor Planet Center, charged by the IAU to keep track of all the minor planets, have now decided that dwarf planets are to be given official numbers in the catalogue of "minor planets", since the first of them (1) Ceres, already has one. This doesn't preclude a separate catalogue, and scheme for dwarf planets, but they're trying to keep things tidy. So from now on it is (134340) Pluto.
Second, somebody in California legislature clearly thinks he could be doing something more useful than this. The question is whether all his "co-authors" are in on the joke.
First, the Minor Planet Center, charged by the IAU to keep track of all the minor planets, have now decided that dwarf planets are to be given official numbers in the catalogue of "minor planets", since the first of them (1) Ceres, already has one. This doesn't preclude a separate catalogue, and scheme for dwarf planets, but they're trying to keep things tidy. So from now on it is (134340) Pluto.
Second, somebody in California legislature clearly thinks he could be doing something more useful than this. The question is whether all his "co-authors" are in on the joke.
posted by The Observer | 16:17
4 Comments:
Is that resolution for real? Sure glad I didn't vote these people into office.
The resolution is real, but the motiviation behind it was more to point out the skewed priorities of the CA legislature than to censure the IAU on the Pluto thing.
See this story in the Ventura County Star.
Ah, now that makes a bit more sense.
#134340? Poor Pluto...
איך נפלו גיבורים!
Post a Comment
<< Home