If you can access the NYT Web page itself, there is a
very amusing photo of a guy who opposes Tyson's views
on Pluto attempting to strangle him. Trust me, it is
funnier than it sounds. I mean, Tyson is smiling.
Icy Pluto's Fall From the Planetary Ranks: A Conversation
February 13, 2001
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
News that astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History
do not consider Pluto a planet spurred more than 100 e-mail
messages, some critical, some supportive, to Dr. Neil de Grasse
Tyson, director of the museum's Hayden Planetarium. The museum is
now considering changing its exhibits slightly to explain its views
to confused visitors.
One e-mail correspondent was Dr. Mark Sykes, chairman of the
Division of Planetary Sciences at the American Astronomical Society
and an astronomer at the Steward Observatory in Arizona. The
division's executive committee was considering drafting a statement
criticizing the museum's exhibits. Dr. Tyson told Dr. Sykes to be
"wary" of drawing conclusions based on what he had heard in the
news. Two weeks ago, Dr. Sykes visited the museum to view the
exhibits. Following are excerpts from a conversation between Dr.
Sykes and Dr. Tyson afterward:
DR. NEIL de GRASSE TYSON People are wondering, what do astronomers
call planets, and of course, as we know, the definition of planets
has changed over time. The Sun and Moon used to be planets. We're
trying to teach the public about our subject, so we said, What's
the best way to convey the most amount of information?
What we decided was rather than count planets, which we don't do
out there, rather than saying who is a planet and who isn't, we say
that the solar system has families of objects, and when we organize
the information, organize the members of the solar system, in
families.
Then the very mention of a family conveys information. So we have
the terrestrial planets, and any time we talk about Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, we mention the grouping. And then we talk about the
asteroid belt, and then the Jovian planets and then the Kuiper Belt
of comets, including Pluto that's orbiting out there.
DR. MARK SYKES The consensus exists. Unanimity may not, but I think
consensus does, and the consensus is that people feel Pluto should
not — it's fine to call it a Kuiper Belt object — but we should not
remove its designation as a planet. People are thinking not
families, not groups, not cousins. They're thinking planets. When
you make visual representations of planets that exclude Pluto, you
are being incomplete.
When people come in, they are expecting to see what astronomers
think. What you've got up here is not what astronomers think.
DR. TYSON It's what some astronomers think.
DR. SYKES Some
astronomers that I can think of, that I can put on one hand.
DR. TYSON The point is, if we say, this is a planet, there's no
information in it. There's no educational information.
DR. SYKES Yes, there is educational information.
DR. TYSON What
does it say? If I say, it's a planet, what does that tell you?
DR. SYKES It says it's got properties that make it distinct from
other objects.
DR. TYSON And so does Ganymede and so does Io. Europa. [Ganymede,
Io and Europa are three large moons of Jupiter.] You can't get more
distinct than that.
DR. SYKES You're an educator. What do you tell about Pluto here?
All you say in your entire exhibit is that it's an icy world. This
is just like all these other guys so we shouldn't distinguish it
and hints there is a justification for what you're doing, but you
arrive at that by not saying things about what we know about the
object which make it distinct from all the other guys. I would say
were Pluto discovered today and known to have a moon and an
atmosphere, I think that it would be designated a planet and not
just given a minor planet designation.
DR. TYSON Aren't there your contemporaries who would say that
differently?
DR. SYKES Well, yes.
DR. TYSON Not a few, but many. Because there's some legacy thing
going, because of course we've lived with it for 60 years, and
there's a dog named after it. It's in our culture. It's there.
DR. SYKES There are noncultural things as I've listed its
properties. It's got nitrogen ice caps. It's got seasons. It's got
a moon. It's got an atmosphere. It's got a whole suite of
properties which distinguishes it from what we know about any other
Kuiper Belt object, and just to blithely say, Well, we're just not
going to tell you about this and we're just going to lump it in
with these other guys, is, from an educational standpoint,
irresponsible.
DR. TYSON I would submit to you that, regardless of what the I.A.U.
[International Astronomical Union] says about how the word "planet"
is applied, the word "planet" does not convey enough information
for it to teach people about the stuff in the solar system. . . .
DR. SYKES If Pluto were 10 times its size, how would you treat it?
DR. TYSON I think if it were still ice, we'd still say, orbiting
with the icy objects.
DR. SYKES Pluto is thought of as a planet. So why not icy planets.
Pluto.
DR. TYSON With a class of one?
DR. SYKES Class of one. Sure. Why not?
DR. TYSON It's
historically dangerous to do that. I read a lot of history about
how science has come from discovery to acceptance and to start
making classes of one is a dangerous thing.
Let me tell you what we're planning to do. Of the e-mail I got
which was from colleagues, about two- thirds had this knee-jerk
"how could you do this?" and then I explained what we actually did,
and then it was softened. But about one-third was supportive.
So of those inquiries, I think the most useful of the
recommendations was, since people come in with this expectation
that Pluto is a planet and then it's sort of not there . . . that
we owe it to the visitor to explain what we did and why we did it.
What we're thinking of doing is preparing a piece that would go on
our kiosks, just to give a more full discussion of Pluto and what
the discussions were.
DR. SYKES But most people won't see that.
DR. TYSON And in addition, we're thinking, we don't know how it'll
work, we're thinking on the railing, because as you saw, you have
the four terrestrial planets and Jovians suspended, we're thinking
of putting a little sign saying, "Where's Pluto?" Because that's
where people see all the planets lined up and then we get to
address this.
And it's an occasion to respect the expectation of the visitor
combined with having an excuse to bring up some of these other
arguments that are out there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/13/science/13PLUT.html?ex=983161707&ei=1&en=2
6e7467e6037f636
/-----------------------------------------------------------------\
Visit NYTimes.com for complete access to the
most authoritative news coverage on the Web,
updated throughout the day.
Become a member today! It's free!
http://www.nytimes.com?eta
\-----------------------------------------------------------------/
HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson
Racer at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo
For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
(u are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
