This is in response to your June 24 article titled: “EarthSky
Tonight-June 24: Earth passes between sun and Pluto tomorrow.” I
wish you had a comments section because I would have posted this
in that section. Pluto is not a “former planet.” It is a planet.
Please do not blindly accept the controversial demotion of
Pluto, which was done by only four percent of the International
Astronomical Union, most of whom are not planetary scientists.
Their decision was immediately opposed in a formal petition by
hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern,
Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto.
Stern and like-minded scientists favor a broader planet
definition that includes any non-self-luminous spheroidal body
in orbit around a star. The spherical part is important because
objects become spherical when they attain a state known as
hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning they are large enough for their
own gravity to pull them into a round shape. This is a
characteristic of planets and no