If everything out there is a planet (or a star), then science will go out the window, and we all will be back to the mysticism of the ancients. Witness the problem of going from a flat Earth to an Earth-centered universe, then to a Sun-centered universe (and finally to a universe without a center). There are folks still alive who believe in an Earth-centered universe (perhaps even in a flat Earth), and there are some people who still believe that the Sun is the center of it all. People HATE CHANGE. We now are faced with an accelerating universe and there are folks who get abdominal cramps over that one, as well. Whatever scientists do will not change the facts of the universe. There will be future scientists who come along to add some previously missed data and that will ruin a lot of people's lives in their having to cope with change.

It does not matter what scientists call anything. The whole idea of classification is to facilitate the study of nature and of nature's laws. If everything is deemed to be a planet, then science must be thrown out the window and we will be back living like the ancients with all of their superstitions.

I grew up in a family with a history of science and got used to scientific change as a given. To me, scientific change is absolutely exhilarating!

ljbrs [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

__________________
"There is in the universe neither center nor circumference." Giordano Bruno Born 1548. Torched 1600.