Demoted Pluto from planet to plutoid statis isn’t going smoothly. Jeanna Bryner of Space.com reports, “The fall from grace has teachers, parents and educational publishers struggling to keep up, while kids remain loyal to their favorite, the ninth planet.” She quotes a nine year old who still believes Pluto is a planet and talks about it with her friends. That’s who the know-it-all scientists who thought they could just kick Pluto out of the sky should have polled, nine year olds who have an emotional stake in that cold chunk of rock. Educators appear to be more flexible.
Writing as a lifelong amateur astronomer, as well as the master of a dog named Pluto, I have an inner nine-year-old who would like Pluto to still be a planet. But I’m mostly with Mrs. Tombaugh, the widow of Pluto’s discoverer, who had this interesting comment (rough quote): “Clyde was a scientist. He would have understood.” The fact is, it makes scientific sense for it to be in a new category, since there could be quite a few out there. The word “planet” would start losing it’s already dicey meaning if there get to be about 30 or 40 of them out there. But I don’t really like the word “plutoid.” I think they should stick to “dwarf planet.” It still has the word “planet” in there, and “dwarf” helps keep it a bit Disney-ish.