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

[pbealo at comcast.net]

I wonder how soon Owen or some other astronomer will publish the "Guess What Happened to Pluto" book??? My guess is it'll be out by Christmas.

Peter


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "John Sheff" <jsheff at comcast.net>
> 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
>  
>  
> _______________________________________________
> ATMoB-discuss mailing list
> ATMoB-discuss at atmob.org
> http://lists.atmob.org/mailman/listinfo/atmob-discuss