Astronomers are Weenies

Ok, except for the one I'm married to. But I feel a need to express this point of view, speaking as the mother of a space obsessed kindergartener (not to mention the mother of a 2 1/2 year old who tags along on all his big brother's obsessions), about the demotion of Pluto. Astronomers are major weenies. As I understand (and DH teaches history of space exploration, and thus is something of an expert) it there was no true, compelling reason to demote Pluto - scientifically it was equally possible to expand the definition of planets or contract it. Neither had much effect on anything, except certain obscurist elements of astronomical terminology, and on the pedagogy of space for kids and young adults. And thus, the Union of Astronomical Twits chose to demote Pluto, rather than expand the definition of planet in such a way as to actually teach people something about what makes a planet. We might have included Ceres, and children might have needed to learn about the asteroid belt, what makes a planet a planet, etc... Instead, we all now get to take our model solar systems, and add a little notation that Pluto doesn't really count - and neither does the newly named Eris, Ceres or anything else.

Speaking as someone whose four year old and 2 year old knows the names and/or numbers of all the moons of Jupiter (Do you? Nope, me neither), I find the claim that we're all better off with a narrower canon of objects being called by the dignification "planet" lest we be unable to learn their names, umm...stupid. We're dumbing down our solar system. This is, I think a sign of the apocalypse.

In the past I've noted that an astronomer/astrophysicist a la my husband is a handy fellow to have around in an apocalypse, or at least a whole lot of science fiction novels include an astrophyisicist who saves the world. If you have a comet racing towards you, or a the earth is being wrenched out of its orbit, fiction would suggest that an astronomer is just what you need to save the world. That, of course, is why I married my husband - so I could keep him handy in case of cometary collision. However, the recent course of events has forced me to revise my opinion of at least some astronomers. They are weenies. If they expect us to keep them around in case of sudden space-borne disaster, they'd better shape up.

Sharon