Dear Pluto

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By Angela MacKenzie

My universe has been turned upside down. Astronomers have recently agreed that you - the last of the known, nine planets for the past 75 years - are no longer a planet. No longer a planet!
Generation after generation, school children have begun their education by learning the alphabet, numbers and, later, the planets. The nine planets were part of the basics, the very foundation of our collective knowledge. We are now left with a mere eight.
What's next?! Will 'Z' be excluded as a letter?
I remember fondly cutting out circles of various sizes out of paper and labelling them to create a model of the solar system for a grade-school, science project. You were the smallest of them all, the trickiest circle to glue to the page because of your size, but I never doubted you.
So you can imagine, how the International Astronomical Union (IAU) rocked my world when it ruled that you no longer qualified as a planet.
According to the IAU's new definition, "a planet is a celestial body that is (a) 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, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."
Alas, you are now relegated to the status of a dwarf planet.
Oh, Pluto! Don't they realize that size shouldn't really matter?
In a feeble attempt to pacify us, a few astronomers are suggesting we consider adding three other possible globes to the planet list - including one nick-named Xena! What in the heavens are they thinking? Are we to endure the possibility of replacing you with a kitschy TV warrior princess?!
I just want to you know that I'll never forget about you, even as teachers across the country paste paper over your presence on their diagrams of the solar system.
By golly! At least astronomers can't vote you out of existence. I know you're still out there, faithfully orbiting every 248 years. But I can't help feel a sense of loss that I never really got to know you as a planet. You just don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

Angela MacKenzie is a 1.5-generation Korean Canadian and editor of C3 Society's News & Views. Send column submissions to aymackenzie@gmail.com. To find out more about C3 Society, visit www.c3society.com.

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