The "trans-Neptunian body," once known and loved as the solar system's ninth planet, was confirmed in photographs in February 1930. But what to call this cold, distant planet? To an 11-year-old British girl, the name was obvious: Pluto, after the mythical Roman god of the underworld.
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It should be noted that the IAU’s controversial demotion of Pluto is very likely not the last word on the subject and in fact represents only one interpretation in an ongoing debate. Only four percent of the IAU voted on this, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed in a formal petition by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. Stern and like-minded scientists favor a broader planet definition that includes any non-self-luminous spheroidal body in orbit around a star. The spherical part is important because objects become spherical when they attain a state known as hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning they are large enough for their own gravity to pull them into a round shape. This is a characteristic of planets and not of shapeless asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects. Pluto meets this criterion and is therefore a planet.
Laurel Kornfeld
I pointed out some time ago that also there are synchronous motions between Pluto and Neptune
http://tinyurl.com/pd54s5
I vote to keep Pluto as a planet
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