Important quote from the article:
Quote:
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The new discovery is a reminder that objects in nature do not always fit into the neat categories created by scientists.
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That's very important to realize. Just because our classifications will not be perfect does not mean we should not attempt to classify.
Who cares if "dwarf planets" are called planets, or not? In a way, they ARE planets.... dwarf planets. But are they qualitatively different than the classical planets? Absolutely, because they did not accrete to a large enough size to clear their orbit.
Too much of the planet debate revolved around nomenclature, when it really was an issue of classification.
It could be that the IAU used "Sun" in their definition instead of the general "a star" simply because they realized that they had far too little information to make a generalized rule.