Must Read: NASA suggests, Pluto Might Be Planet After- All!
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Recently, proposals spearheaded by a group of NASA scientists want to change the definition of the word "planet." If the definition is accepted, Pluto could be considered as a planet again.
The proposal led by Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto, will present it at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March. The team claims that the definition of International Astronomical Union (IAU) is too vague.
In IAU definition, the object is only recognized as a planet when it orbits the sun. While leaving other objects that orbit the star and through the galaxy, Daily Mail reported.
According to Stern, this kind of definition accepted by IAU doesn't conform the real definition of what planet is. He complained, why people keep on listening with an astronomer - Mike Brown, CalTech astronomer, where the new definition came - rather than a planetary scientist.
Stern and his colleague's step in to inform the public about the value of the Solar System. This will lead the public to become more aware beyond the main planets.
NASAscientists proposed a geographical definition: "A planet is a sub-stellar mass body that has never undergone nuclear fusion and that has sufficient self-gravitation to assume a spheroidal shape adequately described by a triaxial ellipsoid regardless of its orbital parameters." In simplest term, an object that is smaller than stars.
Supposing that this proposal is approved, it would roughly change the position of 110 galaxy objects including dwarf planets and moon planets such as Ceres, Pluto including Earth. But as of now while keeping an eye if IAU would accept the proposal, Pluto would have to wait for it to become an official planet.