This is a great editorial about the current debate going on in astronomy circles that revolves around the classification of Pluto, Charon, Ceres and… *cringe* Xena. Many of the astronomers I’ve spoken to believe that these bodies are Kuiper Belt Objects and not planets. For years, there has been a movement to try to declassify Pluto as a planet, and who can blame these guys anyway? I mean it is named after a cartoon dog. At least Xena carries on the tradition with the object being named after a character on a TV Show. I’m just not sure that Xena deserves to be immortalized like that.
So… just as this editorial asks, who do these astronomers think they are anyway?
Enjoy!