Why eight planets?
Here is a cogent explanation by Dr. Michael Brown- the discoverer of 2003 UB313- of the IAU decision to define our solar system as containing only eight full-fledged planets.
Looking at it the way he lays it out, the IAU's point, I think, is easy to see.
Like Ceres in the 1880's, Pluto simply turned out to be simply the biggest (and with the discovery of 2003 UB313, not even the biggest any more!) of a whole different class of objects which resemble each other much more than they resemble the other planets.
Looking at it the way he lays it out, the IAU's point, I think, is easy to see.
Like Ceres in the 1880's, Pluto simply turned out to be simply the biggest (and with the discovery of 2003 UB313, not even the biggest any more!) of a whole different class of objects which resemble each other much more than they resemble the other planets.
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