Quote:
Originally Posted by hhEb09'1
As reasonable as that may be, that's not the usage for the past hundred years, and it's not the situation that the IAU addressed of course--in the current nomenclature, a minor planet is not a planet ( similar, and I know I'm pushing it, to how a mock turtle is not a turtle  ). |
Actually, "for the last hundred year" people have not always distinguished "minor planets" as not being "planets" in the professional literature. Indeed, the term "planetology" includes the study of many more than nine things in our solar system, and references to Titan and Io as "planets" are not hard to find in the literature. I think it would be fairer to say that the debate has existed long before the Pluto decision, and kind of depends on who you ask.