My 4-year-old godson, Dylan, lives in Las Vegas. His mother, Jennifer, recently bought him an astronomically themed lunch box. On it were the planets of our solar system. After studying the image for some time, Dylan asked his mother why his lunch box pictured only eight planets.
You might be asking the same question. This week is the third anniversary of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) decision to remove Pluto from the family of planets. In my opinion, this verdict represents one of the worst public relations blunders in the history of science. And I won’t even get into the controversy that arose when the world learned that less than 5 percent of the IAU membership voted on Pluto’s demotion.
As I was writing this, a friend e-mailed me about a poll on CNN.com. The question was, “Should Pluto be reinstated as a planet?” The responses were overwhelmingly in Pluto’s favor — 82 percent of the (currently) 111,000 respondents voted “Yes.” Are these votes all from uneducated, uncaring science illiterates? I think not. You can count my vote, and those of many of my astronomical peers, among the yeses.
By the way, as my godson gazed forlornly at his lunch box, he and his mother simultaneously saw a small, spherical object crying in one corner of the illustration. “Why is Pluto crying?” asked Dylan, as his eyes, too, began to fill with tears. Sometime later, as his grief abated somewhat, Dylan told his mother, “Pluto will always be in my heart!”
Mine, too, Dylan.
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Photos credit: Jennifer McDonnell