Planetary Collision Course

This week in Prague (about 140 Km north of me) there is a large collection of astronomical luminaries. No it's not an alien invasion. It's the annual International Astronomical Union meeting.

The big, hot item on the agenda, isn't so big or so hot.

It's Pluto, a small spherical icy body that has been considered a planet for around 70 years. Why is this lonely wanderer the center of such uproar?

Because people hate change. There is a proposed plan to create a universal, well for humanity anyway, rule about what is and what is not a planet. Frankly, I would have thought they made this outline decades ago. But it seems that the astronomers were too busy looking up to see what was happening around them.

Now, they are forced to turn their watchful eyes to the center of Europe instead the center of the universe. None of them would have guessed that the most important discovery of the year would have been how charged the debate would be over that small icy planet on the fringe of our solar system.

What is at stake in this debate? The title of Planet for Pluto, the inclusion of numerous other objects in the solar system like Charon and Ceres and even Xena, technically called 2003 UB313.

Wow, you mean we'll have to learn something new? We'll have to name 12 planets instead of 9 (or 8 depending on when you went to school and who was teaching).

So what's the hubbub bub? It's science. Science means CHANGE. If science never changed the things we believed in we would still think GOD made man. Well ok, some people still believe that and I don't really want to argue with them, just in case they're right.

But we wouldn't believe that a small beta helix molecule could create an entire living being. We wouldn't be able to even have carbonated beverages, and I really like my carbonated beverages.

We wouldn't have skyscrapers and automobiles and computers!

COMPUTERS!! What would I do without my computer? Well, I guess I would be reading a book. Unless of course we take away the science of printing and bookmaking and then I would be staring at a candle or a campfire or maybe still running from tree to tree in search of food all the while hoping that I didn't become food myself for something with really big nasty teeth and sharp point claws.

So I say this to all the astonomers up there, visiting the wonderful capital of the country I live in now.

Chill out! I don't think Pluto is sweating it nearly as much as you guys are.

Change is a good thing, you of all scientists should know that. Without change there are no black holes, no white dwarfs, no supernovas and the universe wouldn't be worth the price of admission on the shortest of family holidays.

Science is supposed to change what we know and what we believe. So if this new 'Planetary Law' (not the kind that makes fugitives out of space pirates), makes more planets then we have now, well I say MORE IS BETTER! So vote yes August 24th and keep Pluto as a planet, give Charon and Ceres their birthrights and let Xena, or whatever she shall be named, be what she is. A large spherical object with enough mass andgravity that it is round and is in orbit around a sun but isn't a sun...i.e. A Planet.