'Planet' Pluto: America's 'Eternal Embarrassment'

Are U.S. scientists bending the rules to keep the only planet discovered by an American classified as such? According to this op-ed article from China's state-controlled Xinjingbao [Beijing News], American scientists have 'embarrassed themselves' by trying to force other scientists to accept a new definition of a planet, not only to keep Pluto's planetary classification, but to have many other small celestial bodies discovered by Americans declared 'planets.'

By Huang Yongming

Translated By Haywood Ho

August 28, 2006
China -Beijing News - Original Article (Chinese)    

For Americans, it's the end of the show, but there's a problem with the ending. On August 24, at the 26th Annual Meeting of the International Astronomy Union , 400 astronomers voted to exclude Pluto from the ranks of planets of the Solar System. After seven years of dispute, we now have an official result: The Solar System has been reduced to eight planets, with Pluto reclassified as merely a "dwarf planet."

This result won't comfort many Americans. From time immemorial, people have known of the planets from Mercury to Saturn. Further out, Uranus and Nepture were discovered by Germans. Only Pluto was discovered by an American. In 1930, 24-year-old amateur astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto at the Lowell Observatory. Percival Lowell , the founder of the observatory, struggled and failed for over 10 years to detect any sign of the celestial body. After Tomboc's discovery, Pluto was quickly confirmed as a planet, and with no formal training in astronomy, Tomboc was "recruited" as a professional astronomer.

Despite the rapidity with which it was discovered that Pluto was much smaller than at first thought, no one raised any objections to Pluto's status while Tombaugh was still alive [He died in 1997]. The real debate only began in 1999. This year, the IAU finally drew up an official definition of a "Planet". A seven-person working group first proposed an "American-friendly" resolution. This would not only have retained the planetary status of Pluto, but also would have included Pluto's satellite Charon and another celestial object, 2003UB313, into the ranks of the planets. This too, was discovered by the Americans near Neptune.

This proposal would have meant, according to its proposed definition of a planet, that the Solar System could include tens or even hundreds of additional planets. Under these rules, most of the planets would have been discovered by Americans. The proposal provoked a fierce debate, which, from an outsider's point of view, looked like more like a show than scientific discourse.

European astronomers accounted for a large proportion of those boycotting the bill, and so proposed their own resolution. The President of the IAU [Alexander A. Gurshtein ] disapproved: "We don't want an American version, a European version and a Japanese version."

The two resolutions later split into three. The embarrassing result for the Americans is that Pluto has become a "dwarf planet." The term "dwarf planet" was invented deliberately to cover celestial objects like Pluto which have been discovered by Americans. It's a comforting term; after all, "dwarf planet" has a kind of familial tie to the word "planet."

But in fact Pluto bears none of the hallmarks of being a planet, we all know that. The formation of Pluto was completely different than the other eight planets. Pluto is also smaller than our own Moon - in fact, it's smaller than seven other planetary moons in our Solar System!

The truth is that Pluto should be completely wiped out. But instead it has received an embarrassing title, the use of which will be continued. Why should this be?

At this latest IAU General Assembly, Asian astronomers delivered a report entitled "Is Astronomy Just Western Astronomy?" This is a critical topic. After all, it is only America's love of Pluto that has made the study of our Solar System so complex and so absurd.

Chinese Version Below

冥王星：美国人永远的尴尬

www.thebeijingnews.com · 2006-8-28 1:11:03 · 来源： 新京报

表演结束了，结局有点糟糕———对美国人而言。8月24日，国际天文学联合会（IAU）第26届大会的全体会议上，四百余名天文学家投票将冥王星排除在大行星的行列之外。七年来争执不休的课题有了正式结果：太阳系的大行星减少为八颗，而冥王星只不过是一颗“矮行星”。

　　这个结果不会让美国人感到舒服。以前的九颗大行星里面，从水星到土星都是自远古以来人们就知道的；再往外，天王星是德国人发现的，海王星是德国 人发现的；只有冥王星是美国人发现的。1930年，24岁的美国天文爱好者汤博在洛韦尔天文台发现冥王星，此前，洛韦尔天文台的创始者洛韦尔苦苦观测了十 多年都没有发现这颗天体。冥王星很快被确定为了大行星，没有正规学习过天文学的汤博也被“特招”成为专业天文学家。

　　虽然后来人们发现，冥王星比料想的要小得多，但汤博在世时，没有人对冥王星的地位提出异议。真正的争论在1999年才开始。直到今年，IAU大 会才要正式对“大行星”做出界定，一个七人工作小组最初提出了一个“令美国人舒服”的草案，他们不仅把冥王星的大行星地位保留了，而且把1978年美国人 发现的冥王星卫星卡戎、2005年美国人发现的海王外天体2003UB313也都纳入大行星行列。

　　这个草案意味着，从定义的基本思想出发，太阳系的大行星将来可能会达到数十乃至上百颗。到那时，大部分的大行星应该都是美国人发现的了。草案引发了激烈的争论，各种形式、各种渠道的争论，其实在外人看来，那更像是一种表演。

　　一个欧洲天文学家占很大比例的小组在会议上提出对这份草案的抵制，他们自己拟了一个新的方案。IAU的主席对此感到不满：“我们不想要一个美国版本，一个欧洲版本和一个日本版本。”

　　两份草案后来又分裂成了三份，最终的结果是，冥王星成了一颗尴尬的“矮行星”。“矮行星”是这次会议上为了照顾冥王星以及其他美国人发现的球形 天体而特意发明的一个词汇。或者说，它是一个安慰性质的词汇，“dwarfplanet”（矮行星），说到底还是有“planet”（行星）血统的。

　　但冥王星其实根本没有行星血统，我们都知道这一点。冥王星的形成和八大行星完全不同，冥王星比我们的月球还小———实际上，它比太阳系中的七颗卫星都要小！冥王星应该被完全干掉才对。

　　但它现在获得了一个今后要一直使用下去的不尴不尬的称谓。这是为什么呢？

　　本届IAU大会上，有来自东方的天文学家作了题为“天文学就是‘西方天文学’吗？”的报告。这个题目切中要害。说到底，正是美国人的冥王星情结使得我们今天的太阳系变得如此古怪，如此荒诞。

　　□黄永明（北京记者）