I really can’t believe this is still having to be addressed, but here we go, again. A post is making the rounds on Facebook saying “Pluto has been reclassified as a planet!” This is, of course, an outright lie, and the article cited as a source for it is absolutely idiotic when actually read.
Here is the article in question, being shared around Social media by at least 2 people I personally know, and clearly has gone viral.
Let’s tear this one apart, shall we?
The article starts off in a standard form saying that the International Astronomical Union has decided to reclassify Pluto as a planet. Following a joke being cracked about Planet-X ( a hypothetical planet which doesn’t exist that is used as a focal point in many “doomsday” prophecies) the article goes on to say that Pluto was demoted in status from Planet to Dwarf Planet because “too many people would confuse Pluto (the doggy of Disney fame) with Pluto (the planet, of space and stuff). “
That right there should tell you this entry is absolute bullshit. That should be the point where anyone reading says “this is absurd” and moves on about their day, but nope. People actually shared this, and celebrated this “change.”
It gets worse, though. The article continues:
But all of that just changed, After years of deliberation, the IAU announced in a press release that they have reclassified the icy world—they upgraded Pluto back to its proper standing as a planet. “We simply underestimated the public’s attachment to Pluto.
We realized our error shortly after the decision came down to demote it,” said Dr. Amy Joggy, professor at the Institute of Planetary Studies and head of the IAU’s Planetary Classification and Experimental Nomenclature Task Force. “We didn’t think anyone would really care if a little clump of ice and rock on the outskirts of the solar system was reclassified. Clearly, we dun messed up, and that makes me super sad face.
Now, if those last lines still didn’t do it for you, there’s one last thing that would: The link in the article, in the words “announced in a press release” links to a “let me Google that for you” entry for April Fools Day. Turns out this article is copied word for word from (and still contains links to other articles on) the website futurism.com, where this was posted as an April Fools Day joke sometime in the past.
The article goes on, for what it’s worth, discussing the creation of some class called “Hyper Planets” and Pluto being placed in that category as being “fair” to it.
Absolutely absurd on all fronts. Also, if you look at the entries on the right side, of related articles, that too should tell you this is some kind of joke.
Pluto. This is the real deal, that icy world we all seem to love so much.
The obsession with Pluto being called a Planet is one that simply makes no sense to me. It’s purely emotional because most people grew up saying there were 9 planets. This was before we understood how the outer solar system was. This was before we found a need to more precisely classify just what all was out there.
This is a scientific process, for scientific purposes. Emotion has nothing to do with it. Accuracy in understanding and classifying things is the lone important factor. It doesn’t change what Pluto actually is.
That’s something people can’t seem to understand, when you say Pluto is not a planet, the reaction always is “then what is it” as if Planet is somehow an arbitrary, absolute term. It isn’t; it’s what we called those wandering bright spots in the night sky that behaved differently from the fixed position lights in the sky; stars.
It’s a term that was never well defined, and in 2006, that changed – what a “Planet” actually was was finally defined, and secondary categories were created. Pluto did not fix the primary category, but did fit the “Dwarf Planet” category, in that: A “dwarf planet” is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, (c) has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.
It isn’t that Pluto was re-classed, it’s that we changed what the term was and Pluto no longer fit, nor did other objects that were discovered. That’s it. That is the reason Pluto is *not* called a Planet. It changes absolutely nothing about the world – it’s simply a more accurate classification, much like discussing a breed of dog, rather than just calling it a dog generically.
Discovery photos of Pluto.
Accuracy. That’s all it’s about. People are so emotionally attached to a term, and clearly, given that this article is being shared when it’s so obviously wrong (never even liking to anything from the IAU to express such) people are sharing it purely on emotion, and nothing more – not reading it, and even if they did, probably still not understanding the reason for the re-classification enough to even realize why the article is so obviously bullshit.
I’ve seen smart friends share this, too, so clearly they are too caught up in emotion, or that trend to share articles without reading them, to actually check. If the IAU had made some kind of change to definitions, again, that certainly would be top news both on reputable sources, but also on the IAU website.
I hope I never have to explain this again. It’s getting old.
https://www.xadara.com/of-pluto-and-planets/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet#Characteristics
https://www.snopes.com/pluto-officially-reclassified-planet/