In my blog on June 18, planetary scientist Alan Stern commented on the recent reclassification of Pluto and other outer solar system bodies as “plutoids” instead of planets. We’ve been talking again, this time in response to a conference, "Great Planet Debate: Science as a Process," at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore August 12. It was a chance for scientists to discuss the issues underlying what is being called “the great planet debate,” or simply GPD. The debate is far from resolved, as this e-mail exchange I had with Alan Stern demonstrates. Stern participated in the GPD conference. Here’s what he had to say. Dan Pendick: What were the big issues you discussed at the meeting, what did people say, and what do you think about it? Alan Stern: The only big issue is what science chooses to call a planet. That cannot be decided by voting because science doesn't work that way. Instead, science works by consensus, i.e., scientists making their mind up as to what works best and what description of nature best fits the data. There are basically two camps at present. One camp wants to classify what is and is not a planet based on its attributes. The other camp wants to look at a solar system as a whole and decide what the dominant objects are and call those planets. I like the first approach, i.e., the attribute based approach. I think of it this way: When a spaceship (let's say, the starship Enterprise ) pulls into or ...
Anytime
In my blog on June 18, planetary scientist Alan Stern commented on the recent reclassification of Pluto and other outer solar system bodies as “plutoids” instead of planets. We’ve been talking again, this time in response to a conference, "Great Planet Debate: Science as a Process," at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Baltimore August 12. It was a chance for scientists to discuss the issues underlying what is being called “the great planet debate,” or simply GPD. The debate is far from resolved, as this e-mail exchange I had with Alan Stern demonstrates. Stern participated in the GPD conference. Here’s what he had to say. Dan Pendick: What were the big issues you discussed at the meeting, what did people say, and what do you think about it? Alan Stern: The only big issue is what science chooses to call a planet. That cannot be decided by voting because science doesn't work that way. Instead, science works by consensus, i.e., scientists making their mind up as to what works best and what description of nature best fits the data. There are basically two camps at present. One camp wants to classify what is and is not a planet based on its attributes. The other camp wants to look at a solar system as a whole and decide what the dominant objects are and call those planets. I like the first approach, i.e., the attribute based approach. I think of it this way: When a spaceship (let's say, the starship Enterprise ) pulls into or ...