[ATMoB-discuss] The IAU in Prague, or "How We Lost Pluto"

[John Sheff]

Hi, fellow ATMoB members,
 
I wanted to give you all a heads-up because the CfA's Fall schedule of
public talks hasn't been mailed out yet, and you might be particularly
interested in the first event of our third-Thursday-of-the-month Observatory
Night series on September 21st.
 
In case you haven't been following the controversy swirling around the
classification of Pluto, last month the International Astronomical Union
debated the proper definition of a "planet".  A committee the IAU had set up
to look into the matter - chaired by our own astronomer-historian Owen
Gingerich - recommended an inclusive definition which would have considered
Pluto, "Xena", Ceres, and potentially dozens of other objects to be planets.
This recommendation was voted down by the IAU members at the meeting, and a
much more restrictive definition of a planet was adopted which would
recognize only 8 planets in our Solar System.
 
What went on in that historic meeting? We have a chance to get the inside
scoop from a man at the center of the controversy - Owen Gingerich himself -
in his talk "What Happened to Pluto?", in Phillips Auditorium on Sept. 21st,
(a week after our monthly ATMoB meeting). Details are on the CfA website:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/ep/obsnight.html. Please note: the doors open at
7:00 PM and the talk starts at 7:30 PM.; this and the other Fall events are
starting a half-hour earlier than before, and it's first-come, first-served.
See you there!
 
Clear skies!
 
 
John Sheff, sometimes at:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-7461
jsheff at cfa.harvard.edu