Change can be hard. Since the International Astronomical Union redefined the planet at its general assembly last month, college students across the country who grew up memorizing phrases like “My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” will have to forget, or at least modify, the old mnemonic.
Many members of the general public were sad to see Pluto demoted from planet to dwarf planet. But astronomers say this change could be a good thing.
At Boston University, astronomy professors see this latest development as an opportunity to open a discussion in classrooms — from The Solar System, the department’s biggest class, designed for non-astronomy majors, to the upper-level astrophysics courses.
Pluto’s new definition is an opportunity for students to understand how science is pushing its boundaries, according to Michael Mendillo, an astronomy professor at BU.
“The press says astronomers are demoting Pluto, and that’s one way to phrase it,” he said. “The other way to phrase it would have been that astronomers have learned so much about smaller objects in the solar system since the time that Pluto was discovered. [This is] a wonderful opportunity to use [Pluto] as an educational tool.”
As an IAU member and one of two BU professors who attended the organization’s general assembly that voted on Pluto’s classification, Mendillo said astronomers now have a better understanding of objects on the rim of the solar system, which can prove informative for the general public as well as students.
“Some astronomers have said this is going to alienate the public,” he said. “Well, then let’s educate the public and bring them back. I think it’s a good thing to do.”
Astronomy department Chairman James Jackson, who was against the decision to nix Pluto’s planet status, said media coverage of newly discovered objects beyond the dwarf planet is nevertheless creating fresh scientific discussion for students majoring in the field, particularly on how the universe is expanding.
“Science does change,” he said. “Whole ideas can be discarded, new ideas can come in. It’s a nice way to show that even in an ancient science like astronomy, it continues to change and it can make the news.”
Jackson said he was surprised by how much press Pluto’s status change has received but said he thought it was a positive thing for a department that has seen rapid change.
“We’re just growing and doing very well,” he said. “If the public has more attention on astronomy, and more students want to take astronomy courses… the number of faculty we have will grow, the research money will continue to grow and it will have a big impact here.”
John Clarke, another BU professor who attended the IAU assembly in Prague, said the dwarf planet is changing the way astronomy professors are approaching their initial lecture discussions, particularly for the introductory course he is teaching this semester.
“What’s the definition of a planet?” he said. “I would have said something differently a month ago than I do now, and that really communicates that science is changing.”
Clarke said the IAU’s final decision on Pluto’s classification has shown how people in the field sometimes struggle to find common ground.
“We’re able to talk about these arguments and point out that people even today are still disagreeing,” Clarke said. “Professional scientists are not agreeing that Pluto should not be a planet. It’s a good way for us to make an example of how science is done. [Astronomers] do disagree and become very emotional and call each other names, just like anybody else.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
“I think this is a positive progression for science in general,” said Michael Gully- Santiago, a CAS senior and president of the Astronomical Society, a BU student group. “It does matter only in that people have grown up learning that Pluto is a planet. It’s one of those things you think might be static and unchanging. But things can change and people’s definition of things can change.”
Many astronomy department members, including Clarke, said they understand why people might not warm to the idea of demoting Pluto, since it has been a planet in the solar system for more than 70 years.
“The great majority would have been happy to continue to call Pluto a planet… because people grew up thinking of Pluto as a planet,” he said. “But if you’re trying to make a definition, then it’s a matter of classification.”
Although Jackson opposed the final decision, he said the reclassification of Pluto is positive because it comes at a time when astronomers are exploring new objects in the Kuiper Belt system, an area surrounding Pluto.
Jackson said astronomers should have kept Pluto’s planet status out of pure respect — what he called “grandfathering.”
“Pluto’s always been kind of an odd duck,” he said. “I don’t see the problem with adding new planets in the outer solar system, but where do you draw the line? Astronomers have chosen to draw the line above Pluto rather than below it.
“This is just a group of astronomers trying to establish a convention,” Jackson continued. “It doesn’t change what Pluto is or what it’s all about. It may well be that in future meetings, people will vote to reinstate Pluto. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Jackson said the study of Pluto and other dwarf planets, including Charon and the recently discovered Eris, can usher in new research opportunities for BU’s astronomy department, too.
“It’s opening the door for another realm of discussion on so many more advancements that have come,” Jackson said. “If students can get a piece or flavor of that excitement, that would be terrific.”
Clarke said the continuing discovery of objects in the Kuiper Belt will grow only if the global space program continues to develop.
“We can build bigger telescopes on the earth and that can certainly help, but this real rapid exploration has come about because we’ve sent probes to the other planets,” he said. “That’s going to happen with Pluto in a few years. We will for the first time get an up-close look on what’s really going on.”
RESEARCH AT BU
The financial effects at BU from Pluto’s reclassification will be minimal, Jackson said.
“It’ll take a while for the books to catch up … it’ll probably be a year or two,” he said. “In terms of the impact on [courses], it’s actually kind of an interesting thing to talk about why the definition was changed and show that astronomy is an evolving science rather than something static and stuck in the mud from centuries past.”
The faculty at BU’s astronomy department receive more than $11 million a year in research funding from government agencies, including the National Science Foundation and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The astronomy department pulls in more money per faculty member than any other department in the college.
“We’re very successful in our research enterprise,” he said. “We’re one of the flagship research departments at this university.”
Every Wednesday, the astronomy department opens its observatory on the roof of CAS to the general public. The sessions are generally led by graduate students, but when public interest in astronomical events is high, professors also lead discussions.
THE NEXT STEP
For students and professors alike, Pluto will serve as a reminder of the ever-changing nature of science.
“The current science has got this conservatism that follows it everywhere,” said Chad Mason, Astronomical Society vice president and a CAS sophomore. “Making Pluto not a planet was a great choice because it just shows that science is now stepping out of this conservatism and actually helping their own cause.”
According to Clarke, Pluto is also a reminder of how today’s planet classification can change as scientists learn more about the universe.
“This present definition is not fixed,” he said. “We’re now finding planets around other nearby stars, and as we find more and more of those, our idea about what a planet is could change again. Ten years from now we could be back discussing this all over again.”