In defence of, and apologies to Pluto

Michael Shara, astrophysics curator at the American Museum of Natural History said: "We had enormous numbers of telephone calls, and I would say things that verged on hate mail from second-graders - very angry children who said, 'What have you done? This is the cutest, most Disney-esque of the planets. How could you possibly demote it?'"

Alan Stern, lead scientist of a Pluto-bound probe lamented: "What they did was scientifically ludicrous and publicly embarrassing … Pluto is a planet with clouds, weather and geology."

sydney morning herald picture - minus pluto but with earth's moon

Then, Bryn Nelson of Newsday ‘wrote a letter’ to Pluto, as follows:

Dear Pluto,

It's nothing personal.

Honest. It's just that you were always a bit different from the other eight planets, especially in how you failed to keep your orbit, well, clean.

You're basically round, of course, and you orbit the sun, albeit in that elliptical way of yours. Thursday's yanking of your official "planet" status by the International Astronomical Union comes down to one inconvenient truth: You weren't big enough to sweep away or incorporate your celestial neighbours, while Neptune and the others were packing on the pounds in the early millenniums of our solar system. "Dwarf planet" isn't so bad, is it?

Welcome to the B-list, Pluto.

Institutions like the American Museum of Natural History have dismissed you for years, but astronomers meeting in Prague looked set to solidify your place in the planetary pantheon only last week by essentially defining a planet as anything round that orbits the sun.

But then, the solar system would have at least 53 planets, taxing even the best mnemonic device. The asteroid Ceres would be one! So would your biggest moon, Charon. And Xena, too, or whatever they'll call the recently discovered sphere 2003 UB313, which is bigger than you are.

If Pluto is a planet, astronomers maintained, so is Xena.

And now, neither of you is, after an about-face by astronomers and the new label of "dwarf planet" along with Ceres. Even Xena's co-discoverer, Mike Brown, conceded a downgrade was in the best interests of science.

But back to you, Pluto.

In a decision akin to naming you "Miss Congeniality", the astronomers meeting in Prague promoted you to the head of your own celestial class. Exactly what that class should be called, though, is unsettled.

"Plutonian objects" didn't pass muster, and geologists pointed out that a prior suggestion, "plutons", was taken. In the interim, you can take pride in being the grand pooh-bah of "trans-Neptunian objects", or those wan bodies pushed out of the way long ago by Neptune.

Put another way, Pluto, you're now king of the solar system's icy dirtballs. Not that it changes our feelings for you.

"Pluto is still a fascinating object," said Charles Liu, an associate astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History.

And at least you fared better than Charon, which has been "sent back to committee".

Pluto, we all feel your pain.

I doubt this is going to stop those 'hate mails' ;-)