Other bodies may join it if Pluto is restored to its position as a planet.
The decision to dethrone Pluto was based on old-school ideas that mixed astronomy with astrology, and as such, the decision should be reversed, according to a new study from the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida.
It all goes back to Galileo.
In the post-2006 world, when the IAU redefined the term "planet", it was shocking to see that Galileo Galilei, the father of observational astronomy, only considered a planet if it was at least partly visible.
The main thing that made up a planet was evidence of geological activity, which Galileo believed to be the main thing that made up a planet. There was a decline in planetary science papers and a rise in the printing of almanacs.
Every household in the United States and England could get one copy of the same book every year, according to the findings of a planetary scientist. The public accepted that the Earth is in the same position as the Sun, and they combined this with a definition of planets that came from astrology.
Before, objects like moons and asteroids could be considered planets under the Galilean ideal, but that changed because astrology requires the concept of a specific number of planets to make predictions.
The planetologist told UCF Today that planets were no longer defined by being complex, but by their potential for life and civilization. They were defined by being simple, following certain idealized paths around the Sun.
When space exploration missions began to take off from Earth in the early 1900s, Pluto was one of nine fixed planets, but as some scientists began to return to Galileo's broader definition of planets, others still pushed back.
The IAU criterion that kicked out Pluto was never used in the past, according to the researchers. The authors of the study said that the additional criteria for inclusion in the planetary taxonomy was a mistake.
When Galileo was jailed for the rest of his life for deviating from the heliocentric model, it was like releasing him from house arrest.
When we went with the folk concept of an orderly number of planets, we put him back in jail. We rejailed Galileo. We are trying to get Galileo out of jail so that his deep insight will be crystal clear.
It would be as big of a deal as the original 2006 decision if the IAU took the UCF research into account and changed its planetary criteria in a way that would bring back Pluto.
This research drives home the idea that planetary taxonomy is just as artificial as the telescopes we use to find new exoplanets, and that they exist all over the Universe regardless of what we call them here on Earth.
There is a Folklore, Astrology, Study that suggests that the Planet Decision that Booted out Pluto is related to Folklore.
A number of stars are actually spacecraft.
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