Astronomers Reclassify Pluto as a Dwarf Planet

▪ 2007

 “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” These lines, spoken about Romeo by Shakespeare's Juliet, encapsulated the debate that peaked in 2006 over the meaning of the word planet. The original Greek term meant “wanderer” and referred to a heavenly body that appeared to wander among the stars. In the geocentric view of ancient Greek astronomy, there were seven such heavenly bodies—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon. By the mid-17th century this view had been replaced with that of the heliocentric solar system, in which planets were bodies that orbited the Sun. With this change the Earth was added to the list, and the Sun and the Moon were removed, leaving six planets. The number increased to nine with the discoveries of Uranus (1781), Neptune (1846), and Pluto (1930). In the 19th century, however, the designation of planets was not clear-cut. Beginning with the discovery of Ceres (1801), a large number of objects were observed in orbit between Mars and Jupiter. They were initially called planets, but because of their small size, large number, and similar orbits, they were “demoted” to the status of asteroids, or minor planets.

      In the late 20th century, a variety of discoveries started to raise doubts about the status of Pluto, the outermost planet. For example, improved observations revealed that Pluto is only about two-thirds the diameter of the Moon (though still larger than Ceres). Then astronomers began to find the first of many new objects, called Kuiper belt objects, that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune. Like Pluto they are icy, and some have orbits that are similar to Pluto's. When in 2005 a Kuiper belt object (later named Eris) was determined to be larger than Pluto, astronomers were faced with deciding whether it too was a planet. Their arguments primarily came down to whether a planet should be defined by physical or observational (and therefore also historical) characteristics. The discussion was further complicated by the growing number of discoveries of planetary systems beyond the solar system.

      At the triennial meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) held in Prague in August 2006, there was intense debate over what constitutes a planet. By a vote of the astronomers in attendance, the IAU decided that a solar system planet is a celestial body that (1) is in orbit around the Sun, (2) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (3) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. According to this definition, there are only eight planets in the solar system. Pluto, together with Ceres and Eris, was named a “dwarf planet,” an object that satisfies only the first two conditions. So what's in a name? When it comes to “planet,” the answer that emerged in 2006 might change yet again, since many astronomers wanted to return to the question at the triennial meeting of the IAU in 2009.

Kenneth Brecher

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