Khadijah Ismail. (2011). Bulletin KKSB: pluto bukan lagi planet.

Dipetik pada Febuari 13, 2012, dari http://buletinkksb.blogspot.com/2011/01/pluto-bukan-lagiplanet.html

Pluto bukan lagi Planet ???

Tentu kita semua telah belajar di sekolah dalam mata pelajaran Sains tentang planet Pluto dalam sistem suria kita. Planet adalah objek yang mengorbit matahari dan planet yang pernah kita pelajari satu masa dahulu ada 9 semuanya termasuk Pluto. Namun begitu, pada tahun 2006, International Astronomical Union (IAU) atau Kesatuan Astronomi Antarabangsa yang dianggotai oleh ahli dan pakar dalam astronomi telah mengundi untuk mengeluarkan Pluto daripada senarai planet menjadikan planet hanya tinggal 8 iaitu Utarid (Mercury), Zuhrah (Venus), Bumi (Earth), Marikh (Mars), Musytari (Jupiter), Zuhal (Saturn), Uranus dan Neptun.

Sejak dijumpai pada tahun 1930 oleh Clyde W. Tombaugh sehingga tahun 2006, Pluto dianggap sebagai planet ke sembilan dalam Sistem Suria. Pluto mempunyai 3 satelit atau bulan iaitu Charon, Nix dan Hydra. Pada akhir tahun 1970-an, selepas planet kecil 2060 Chiron dijumpai di luar Sistem Suria dan pengakuan jisim rendah Pluto, statusnya sebagai planet utama telah dipersoalkan. Pada akhir abad ke-20 dan awal abad ke-21, banyak objek serupa dengan Pluto telah dijumpai di luar Sistem Suria, terutamanya objek cakera bertabur seperti planet kerdil Eris pada tahun 2005, yang 27% lebih besar berbanding Pluto. Pada 24 Ogos 2006, International Astronomical Union (IAU) mentakrifkan apa yang dianggap planet dalam Sistem Suria. Takrifan ini menyingkirkan Pluto sebagai sebuah planet dan memasukkannya sebagai ahli kategori baru "planet kerdil" (dwarf planet) bersama Eris dan Ceres. Selepas pengkelasan tersebut, Pluto ditambah kepada daftar planet kecil dan diberikan nama rasmi 134340. Namun begitu, sejumlah pakar sains kekal menegaskan bahawa Pluto patut dikelaskan sebagai sebuah planet.

Mengapa Pluto tidak lagi dianggap sebagai planet? Ini kerana, planet telah ditakrifkan semula oleh IAU sebagai : mempunyai orbit yang mengelilingi Matahari

 mempunyai jisim yang cukup untuk mencapai bentuk keseimbangan hidrostatik (hampir bulat) melepasi (tidak bersilang) orbit planet jiran. Badan bukan satelit yang memenuhi dua syarat pertama digelar "planet kerdil", manakala badan bukan satelit lain (cuma memenuhi syarat pertama) dipanggil "badan sistem suria kecil" (dulu planet minor). Pentakrifan semula ini amat kontroversi dan banyak dikritik. Menurut takrifan ini, kini terdapat lapan planet dan lima planet kerdil dalam sistem suria. Pentakrifan ini khusus untuk Sistem Suria sahaja, oleh itu, ia tidak boleh digunakan dalam kes planet luar sistem suria.

Oleh sebab orbit Pluto telah memotong orbit Neptun sehingga kadangkala Pluto berada lebih dekat dengan matahari berbanding planet Neptun, maka Pluto telah digugurkan kelayakannya untuk memegang status sebagai sebuah planet. Pluto, digelar secara rasmi sebagai 134340 Pluto, merupakan planet kerdil kedua terbesar yang diketahui dalam Sistem Suria (selepas planet kerdil Eris) dan badan kesepuluh terbesar yang dilihat dengan mata kasar mengelilingi matahari.

Rujukan : wikipedia, Buku-Buku Astronomi

Robert Roy Britt. (2006). Scientists: Pluto Not A Planet. Dipetik pada Febuari 13, 2012, dari http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14489259/ns/technology and science-space/t/scientists-decide-plutos-no-longer-planet/#.TwebqNRQhvw

Scientists decide Plutos no longer a planet Capping years of intense debate, astronomers resolved Thursday to demote Pluto in a wholesale redefinition of planethood that is being billed as a victory of scientific reasoning over historic and cultural influences. But the decision is already being hotly debated. Officially, Pluto is no longer a planet. "Pluto is dead," said Mike Brown, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology who spoke with reporters via a teleconference while monitoring the vote. The decision also means a Pluto-sized object that Brown discovered will not be called a planet. "Pluto is not a planet," Brown said. "There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system." The vote involved just 424 astronomers who remained for the last day of a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague.

"I'm embarrassed for astronomy. Less than 5 percent of the world's astronomers voted," said Alan Stern, leader of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute. "This definition stinks, for technical reasons," Stern told Space.com. He expects the astronomy community to overturn the decision. Other astronomers criticized the definition as ambiguous. Advertise | AdChoices The resolution The decision establishes three main categories of objects in our solar system.
a. Planets: The eight worlds starting with Mercury and moving out to Venus,

Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Dwarf planets: Pluto and any other round object that "has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite." c. Small solar system bodies: All other objects orbiting the sun.
b.

Pluto and its moon Charon, which would both have been planets under the initial definition proposed Aug. 16, now get demoted because they are part of a sea of other objects that occupy the same region of space. Earth and the other eight large planets have, on the other hand, cleared broad swaths of space of any other large objects. "Pluto is a dwarf planet by the ... definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects," states the approved resolution. Dwarf planets are not planets under the definition, however. "There will be hundreds of dwarf planets," Brown predicted. He has already found dozens that fit the category. Contentious logic The vote came after eight days of contentious debate that involved four separate proposals at the group's meeting in Prague. The initial proposal, hammered out by a group of seven astronomers, historians and authors, attempted to preserve Pluto as a planet but was widely criticized for diluting the meaning of the word. It would also have made planets out of the asteroid Ceres and Pluto's moon Charon. But not now. "Ceres is a dwarf planet. it's the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt," Brown said. "Charon is a satellite." The category of "dwarf planet" is expected to include dozens of round objects already discovered beyond Neptune. Ultimately, hundreds will probably be found, astronomers say.

The word "planet" originally described wanderers of the sky that moved against the relatively fixed background of star. Pluto, discovered in 1930, was at first thought to be larger than it is. It has an eccentric orbit that crosses the path of Neptune and also takes it well above and below the main plane of the solar system. Recent discoveries of other round, icy object in Pluto's realm have led most astronomers to agree that the diminutive world should never have been termed a planet. Advertise | AdChoices 'A farce' Stern, in charge of the robotic probe on its way to Pluto, said the language of the resolution is flawed. It requires that a planet "has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit." But Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune all have asteroids as neighbors. "It's patently clear that Earth's zone is not cleared," Stern told Space.com. "Jupiter has 50,000 Trojan asteroids," which orbit in lockstep with the planet. Stern called it "absurd" that only 424 astronomers were allowed to vote, out of about 10,000 professional astronomers around the globe. "It won't stand," he said. "It's a farce." Stern said astronomers are already circulating a petition that would try to overturn the IAU decision. Owen Gingerich, historian and astronomer emeritus at Harvard who led the committee that proposed the initial definition, called the new definition "confusing and unfortunate" and said he was "not at all pleased"