I’ve known two Plutos in my life. Not to be confused with Plato in any way shape or form. But back to the Plutos.
The first was the Disney dog. Pluto. That was Mickey Mouse’s dog.
He’s one of Mickey’s earliest companions. Good old Pluto first appeared in the early 1930s. He wasn’t like a lot of the other Disney characters. Take Goofy for example. That Goofy guy is also dog-like. But he acts like a human. Whereas Pluto behaves like a real dog. He doesn’t talk. He walks on all fours. And, he communicates like other dogs do. Through expressions and sounds.
I loved Pluto when I was a kid. He was one of my favorites.
The next Pluto I knew came a little later when I learned about the planets. In my first science class. We built models of our solar system using styromfoam balls, and acryllic paints. There were nine balls. Nine planets. And Pluto was the little guy way out there the farthest from the sun.
Pluto was my favorite planet. I was certain they named it after my favorite Disney dog.
So imagine my dismay on August 24, 2006. It was a dark and sad Thursday.
You see, on that date, the people at the the International Astronomical Union in Prague votd to demote Pluto from the ninth planet from the Sun. They made poor Pluto one of dozens of known dwarf planets by a show of their hands. How dare they.
Apparently, the vote followed a week of debate by the IAU. Now, if you ask me, they were all willy nilly on this. They should have left well enough alone. But the ultimate proposal defined the word “planets” supposedly once and for all. They said that “planets are celestial objects large enough to be made rounded by their gravitational orbit around the Sun and to have pushed away nearby planetary objects and debris.”
The figured Pluto didn’t meet the criteria. Two years later, the IAU decided on a name for dwarf planets similar to Pluto. They called it a “plutoid”. They grouped Pluto with Eris and others.
Here is the thing that didn’t make the news. The demotion of Pluto really hacked off a lot of
influential astronomers. They were mad because only a few scientists voted on this verdict. There were only 424 astronomers out of more than 10,000 professional astronomers worldwide at the IAU conference. That’s only about 4% of the potential votes on this.
Here is another thing. Some state legislatures have even named March 13 Pluto Day, in stubborn dismissal of Pluto’s demotion. Nobody wanted to see Pluto to go. Except for those few dudes at the IAU meeting that fateful day.
So here is to Pluto. Who will always be a planet in my heart.
And also to Pluto. The good dog from Disney. And guess what. Pluto got his official name shortly after the discovery of the planet Pluto in 1930. Disney liked the name and used it for Mickey’s dog.
Another good reason to put Pluto back where it belongs.
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“I think we all have a little rebellion in us, especially when something we love gets taken away.” — Matthew Daniels
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“Childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s seasons.” — Jerry Smith
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“Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” — Steve Jobs
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“Once you have tasted the stars, you will forever look up.” — A. Trainor
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