Join In!

February 28th, 2011

February 28th: Encore Episode – Why Isn’t Pluto a Planet?

Date: February 28, 2011 Title: Why Isn't Pluto a Planet? [podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/astro365/20110228-365DoA.mp3[/podcast] Podcaster: The Astronomy Cast Team of Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay Organization: Astronomy Cast - www.astronomycast.org Description: A short explainer on why Pluto is no longer a planet. If you’re friends have cornered and asking you technical questions on why Pluto isn’t a planet, you can point them here and let Fraser and Pamela set them straight. This podcast originally aired on April 18, 2009. Bio: Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today and Dr. Pamela Gay is a professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. They team up to do Astronomy Cast, a weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos. Today's sponsor: This episode of "365 Days of Astronomy" is sponsored by -- no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2011, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the "Donate" button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org. Transcript: ***Transcript coming soon.*** End of podcast: 365 Days of Astronomy ===================== The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Astrosphere New Media Association. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow...goodbye.

Tags:

One Response to “February 28th: Encore Episode – Why Isn’t Pluto a Planet?”

  1. Laurel Kornfeld Mar 1st, 2011

    Pluto is very much a planet, and I encourage everyone to hear both sides of this ongoing debate before blindly accepting one interpretation as fact. Hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto, have formally rejected the demotion of Pluto, which was done by only four percent of the IAU. Stern and like-minded scientists favor a broader planet definition that includes any non-self-luminous spheroidal body orbiting a star. That gives our solar system a potential of 60+ planets. The term dwarf planet was created by Dr. Alan Stern in 1991 to indicate a third class of planets in addition to terrestrials and jovians, small planets large enough to be pulled into a round shape by their own gravity but not large enough to gravitationally dominate their orbits. He never intended for dwarf planets to not be considered planets at all. And interestingly, the premise that led the IAU to feel a need to define planet–that Eris is larger than Pluto–was shown to be false when Eris occulted a star in November 2010.

    I encourage readers to learn both sides of the story. Two good books on the pro-Pluto as a planet side are “Is Pluto A Planet?” by Dr. David Weintraub and “The Case for Pluto” by Alan Boyle.

Leave a Response