Mrs.Benazir Bhutto....Killed...post-mortem is important

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For Pluto, a Smaller World After All

Astronomers' Reclassification Strips Ninth Planet of Status in Solar

System

 

By Shankar Vedantam

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 25, 2006; Page A01

 

Pluto the planet is dead.

 

The baby in the solar system's familiar nine-planet pantheon, a

favorite of schoolchildren everywhere, was disowned yesterday by the

world's astronomers.

 

Members of the 6th General Assembly of International Astronomic

Union vote on a resolution for planet definition in Prague. The new

guidelines made Pluto a dwarf planet rather than a " classical "

planet. (Michal Cizek -- AFP/Getty Images)

 

Defining 'Planets'

The International Astronomical Union yesterday downgraded Pluto to a

new category called " dwarf planet, " leaving only eight " classical

planets " in the solar system. The organization also created a

subcategory of dwarf planets - " trans-Neptunian objects " - to which

Pluto belongs. It did not settle on an official name for the

category.

 

Pluto's failing? It isn't big enough and strong enough to push

anyone around.

 

That's what it takes to be a real planet, the scientists said. Only

the eight " classical " planets are large enough to be dominant over

smaller bodies in their path.

 

Pluto's course through the heavens, by contrast, is under the sway

of much larger Neptune.

 

The former planet doesn't have even the consolation of a new title.

In a series of votes, the astronomers narrowly decided against

calling it a " plutonian object. " The term " pluton " was shot down,

too. But they insisted that Pluto would still have stature -- it

becomes a " dwarf planet " and the prototype of a new, as yet unnamed,

subcategory of objects. The scientists said they will seek

suggestions for a name from the public.

 

The fight over Pluto's status at a meeting in Prague of the

International Astronomical Union, the body that sets standards for

the field, became a vicious battle that ultimately broke along

scientific, linguistic and historical lines. The result was hailed

by some as a victory of rationality over sentiment, but came as a

huge disappointment to others, including the head of a panel charged

with coming up with a new definition for " planet. "

 

Owen Gingerich, a Harvard astronomer and historian, said the

definition the group ended up with was a perfect example of " a horse

designed by a committee. " He quoted a colleague in Prague as

saying, " It demonstrates how belligerent and self-centered planetary

astronomers can be. "

The " dwarf planet " classification to which Pluto was relegated will

potentially have dozens of members. But the scientists emphasized

they were also carving out a subcategory for dwarf planets that

orbit beyond Neptune, a group that currently includes Pluto and one

other body.

 

Astronomers acknowledged that one reason to create the special

category is public sentiment against dumping Pluto in a large

agglomeration of unspectacular objects.

 

" The message to the public is we recognize Pluto as a prototype of a

different kind of object, and that is more exciting than being one

of the regular planets, " said Ron Ekers, outgoing president of the

astronomers union.

 

That reasoning was not well received in some quarters.

 

" Pluto is a dwarf planet, but we are now faced with the absurdity

that a dwarf planet is not a planet, " Gingerich retorted. " Is a

human dwarf not a human? "

 

The controversy over how to define Pluto began when scientists

realized it is much smaller than it was thought to be when it was

discovered in 1930. Early data indicating that it was large enough

to disturb the orbits of Neptune and Uranus turned out to be

observational errors.

 

Photos

 

Members of the 6th General Assembly of International Astronomic

Union vote on a resolution for planet definition in Prague. The new

guidelines made Pluto a dwarf planet rather than a " classical "

planet. (Michal Cizek -- AFP/Getty Images)

 

Photos

The Solar System

A tour of the solar system.

 

Defining 'Planets'

The International Astronomical Union yesterday downgraded Pluto to a

new category called " dwarf planet, " leaving only eight " classical

planets " in the solar system. The organization also created a

subcategory of dwarf planets - " trans-Neptunian objects " - to which

Pluto belongs. It did not settle on an official name for the

category.

 

As a result, astronomers felt there was something distinctive about

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

But like the late Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, who said he

could not define pornography but knew it when he saw it, the

scientists found that coming up with a definition that would include

only eight planets was surprisingly difficult.

 

One option would be to call any round object orbiting the sun and

larger than a certain size a planet. If that minimum size were

arbitrarily set small enough to include Pluto, it would be a planet.

But so would an even more distant object found in 2003 that is

larger than Pluto, dubbed 2003 UB313, or, unofficially, Xena.

 

Another possibility, advocated by Gingerich's committee, would have

been to call any orbiting object sufficiently large for gravity to

pull it into a round shape a planet. That would have included Pluto,

Xena and Ceres -- a object long considered an asteroid that orbits

between Mars and Jupiter -- and perhaps others.

 

This definition would have preserved the status of the

eight " classical " planets by calling the smaller objects " plutons. "

But geologists objected, saying the word " pluton " hadalready been

claimed -- in geology, it is the term for magma that works its way

into rocks.

 

Yesterday, astronomers who focus on dynamical properties -- how

planets influence their surroundings -- won the day: Because the

eight classical planets are relatively large, they dominate their

orbits, sweeping smaller objects before them.

 

" Either of these definitions is technically good, " said Ekers,

referring to the Gingerich definition and the one finally

adopted. " One would have been easier for describing to children and

the public, and the resolution which is passed is fine for

scientists but is a little more difficult for the public. "

 

Other astronomers remained divided. Andrew Cheng, Harold F. Weaver

and Karl Glazebrook of Johns Hopkins University said the new

definition about planets being able to clear their neighborhoods of

other objects is muddled and confusing. But colleagues William P.

Blair and Richard Conn Henry said demoting Pluto makes sense.

 

Astronomer Mike Brown, who helped discover Xena and would have stood

to gain fame from Gingerich's original definition, said the

astronomy group had come up with the right decision. " A mistake was

made, and science has corrected the mistake, " said Brown, of the

California Institute of Technology.

 

But Gingerich, who is also a historian, said astronomers had blown

it by ignoring public sentiment and the historical significance of

Pluto: " We are an expensive science, and if we don't have public

support, we are not going to be able to do our work. "

 

 

 

 

 

How the Facts Align

As Pluto Is Demoted, Some Look for Scientific Clarity

 

By Michael Alison Chandler and Mary Otto

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, August 25, 2006; Page A07

 

Beneath the wings of the space shuttle Enterprise in a cavernous

hangar at the National Air and Space Museum's Virginia annex, space

exploration took a deeper turn into the unknown yesterday with the

news that Pluto will no longer be considered a planet.

 

Without a scientist or exhibit to explain the reclassification of

the cold, distant entity long known as the ninth planet, young

science enthusiasts turned to their only source of information for

clarification: their parents.

 

 

Dominic Santoro, 7, of Reading, Pa., views a model of the solar

system in the Outer Space Place at the Maryland Science Center in

Baltimore. (By Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)

 

The International Astronomical Union yesterday downgraded Pluto to a

new category called " dwarf planet, " leaving only eight " classical

planets " in the solar system. The organization also created a

subcategory of dwarf planets - " trans-Neptunian objects " - to which

Pluto belongs. It did not settle on an official name for the

category.

 

" But, why can't it be a planet anymore? " was the first thing 11-year-

old Maria Lomax of York, Pa., wanted to know.

 

" Well, if you get more scientific research, then the scientists can

change what they think, " Becky Lomax replied.

 

" But if it's not a planet anymore, then what is it? " chimed in Sarah

Lomax, 9.

 

Becky Lomax, who home-schools her children, said she will have to

investigate. " We just did the solar system last year, " she said. " I

guess we have to revisit it. "

 

At the Rock Creek Park Nature Center and Planetarium in Washington,

in the midst of a knot of children who were studying sunspots

through a telescope, 6-year-old David Lieberman of Bethesda was

incredulous when his mother informed him that Pluto had been reduced

to " dwarf " status.

 

" It has to be considered a planet because it circles the sun, " he

said. " Pluto's not even the farthest planet. " Sometimes, he has

learned, Neptune and Pluto switch places.

 

Erasing Pluto's planetary designation from the galaxy of science

textbooks, encyclopedias and educational software will be no small

task. For years to come, students may puzzle over Pluto.

 

Next to an astronaut suit display at the museum annex in Chantilly,

5-year-old Sam Hennig of Arlington wondered what Pluto might be if

not a planet.

 

" A star? " he asked. " A meteor? "

 

The three-foot-tall towhead said he has learned about Pluto from the

library books. " It's dark and cold, " he said. And it's so far away

that " the sun looks like a little dot from there. " Yesterday, he

knit his brow over what he doesn't know.

 

" If Pluto isn't, well, " a planet, he asked, " will it still be part

of the solar system? "

 

For 4-year-old Benjamin Meman of Frederick, whose interest in outer

space has not developed far beyond Martians, the loss of Pluto means

one fewer magnet on the refrigerator.

 

Defining 'Planets'

The International Astronomical Union yesterday downgraded Pluto to a

new category called " dwarf planet, " leaving only eight " classical

planets " in the solar system. The organization also created a

subcategory of dwarf planets - " trans-Neptunian objects " - to which

Pluto belongs. It did not settle on an official name for the

category.

 

 

For Ben Kranner, 13, of Madison, Wis., one fewer planet will require

a new planetary mnemonic device. " 'My very excellent mother just

served us nine pancakes' will become 'My very excellent mother just

served us nine. . . .,' " he said. " It doesn't make any sense. "

 

His father, Paul Kranner, who was studying a panoramic image of

Mars, took the news harder.

 

" I didn't think they would actually decide that, " he said of the

scientists.

 

He said his son's generation has not inherited the same keen

interest in outer space as his own.

 

" In the 1960s and 1970s, space was really cool, " Kranner said. " If

there was an Apollo landing, they would cancel school or they would

roll a giant TV into the cafeteria, and everybody would watch it.

But back then it was just Apollo and the moon, and that was it.

Pluto used to be one little blur in the telescope. "

 

Now there are bigger telescopes and more blurs, he said, and there

may be 600 planets or there may be eight. With each discovery, he

said, " They'll add another sentence to the book. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

vedic astrology , Prashant Kumar G B

<pkgoteti wrote:

>

> Members

>

> I agree with tatvam-asi on the 2nd mail NOT THE 1st one on

Benazir's end due to Pluto

>

> late B V RAMAN and later Gayithri devi have said clearly on many

such ends to world leaders, and never went outside the traditional

planets and even Parashara Maharishi in Mahabharata has given hints

o f the so called new planets and said they have no role in human

kind as they take more than one life cycle of a human being to cover

1 sign

>

> he had pin pointed their locations when we back date them it is

close to what is generally accepted as Mahabharata epci war times

>

> well Pluto is removed from the list of planets by western

astronomers so I am sure their astrologers will also do soon.

>

>

> which means we need to find clues within the Vedic astrology model

[no planets outside Sani is counted]

>

> Best wishs

>

>

> G B Prashant Kumar

>

> Pl give personal data with verifable life event dates=jobs,

marriage, family, kids, high/low times. Picture or 2 for Lagna

features check to my ID pkgoteti, Services of this astrologer in

the group only are FREE! personal consultations ARE CHARGEABLE!

Mobile 09840051861 Chennai, India Me Shuba Vela!

>

>

>

>

> Tatvam-Asi <nameisego

> vedic astrology

> Thursday, December 27, 2007 11:37:01 PM

> Re: [vedic astrology] Re: Mrs.Benazir

Bhutto....Killed...post-mortem is important

>

> Whether it is medical field or astrology. Or for that matter any

field of knowledge. Unless we fall back and study, we cannot

understand anything fully.

>

> All the laws of astrology have been formulated ONLY AFTER GOING

BACK WHEN ANY EVENT TOOK PLACE AND THEN COMBINATIONS OR YOGAS

RESPONSIBLE FOR SUCH EVENTS WERE ADJUDGED AS RESPONSIBLE .

>

> So let us not adopt an attitude of superiority and do not shy away

from post mortem.

>

> Tatvam-Asi

>

> " kiran.rama " <rkirana (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

> Let us avoid post-mortem on this

>

> Once an event has happened it is always possible to find a

planetary

> combination for the same.

>

> Use of astrology is in predicting not in post-mortem

>

> If you want to do post-mortem, do it on blind chart and showcase

your

> skills

>

> vedic astrology, " nameisego "

<nameisego@ ..> wrote:

> >

> > Friends,

> >

> >

> > A sad event in History of Pakistan.

> > I understand that she was born on 21st June 1953 in Karachi.

> >

> > Does anyone have her exact birth timing?

> >

> > Is this handiwork of Pluto who is in uti with Jupiter in Mula

> > Nakshatra ?

> >

> > Let us say a prayer for the departed soul.

> >

> > Tatvam-Asi

> >

>

> ------------ --------- --------- ---

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