Pluto The Maybe Planet

Welcome Back Pluto! We're Glad that You're a Planet Again.

To summarize this book in a single paragraph: It is perfectly legitimate and proper to call Pluto, Ceres, and Eris planets. Why? Because that's what the majority of planetary scientists confidently and openly call them. The famously flawed definition was the result of a small minority of astronomers who leveraged a procedural protocol to force their opinions onto the world. That's not science, and it's not how definitions work. Their "definition" does not pass scrutiny. Pluto is a planet by any sensible definition of the word. All the specific details to back that up, how it all happened, and how to resolve the problem are contained here. This book only briefly discusses the internal politics of the IAU. It is more about the history and science of astronomy and the interplay of objects in the Solar System. It is a categorical analysis of the largest objects in the Solar System and many of the small ones too. It explores the words we use to describe it all, and how scientific definitions and classification schemes work in other disciplines for comparison. The conclusion is simple. If you love science, astronomy, and space exploration, you should be calling Pluto a planet too.

Cross-Curricular Building Blocks - Grades 5-6

"Includes 25 reproducible activities that provide an excellent system for student assessment. ... Addresses the National Education Standards."--Pg.4 of cover.

Pluto, the Maybe Planet