The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Pluto to get dwarf planet tag

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 26, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Pluto to get dwarf planet tag

Govind D. Belgaumkar

It will be put along with Ceres and Xena at Nehru planetarium

THE GALAXY: An artist's rendition shows the solar system with 12 planets, including three new ones that are planned to be added if astronomers approve it. — Photo: AFP

BANGALORE: In keeping with the new definition of planets evolved by the International Astronomical Union on Thursday, the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium here will soon distinguish between planets and dwarf planets, re-categorising Pluto.

It will take out Pluto from the list of regular planets and categorise it as dwarf planet along with Ceres and Xena.

B.S. Shailaja, astronomer at the planetarium, told The Hindu that a team was already revising the 40-minute Kannada and English programmes on the solar system being shown in the planetarium six days a week. She said she could not give a timeframe as a team was working on it. The team was also busy with another project, she said.

Dr. Shailaja was not sure whether the change could be accommodated in the facility for visitors to check their weight in the nine planets. People can get a colour printout with a few details about the planets and their size and their weight in them.

"Let Pluto be there as a representative of dwarf planets," Dr. Shailaja said.

The mechanism involved and the possibility of either removing Pluto from it or introducing two other dwarf planets would have to be studied before taking a decision, she said.

Interestingly, the equipment showed on Friday that a man weighing over 80 kg on earth weighs a little less than 5 kg on Pluto.

A class III student who weighed a little over 41.8 kg on earth weighed only 2.5 kg. The printout showed that the period of revolution of Pluto around the sun is 247.7 years and the period of rotation around itself 6.39 days. Its equatorial diameter is 2,300 km and mean density 2030 kg/m3. The distance of Pluto from the sun (in km) is 5.9x10 raised to the power of 9.

The planetarium has two regular shows — in Kannada and English — every afternoon. It exhibits special shows for school children in the morning.

"There is great demand for the programme on the solar system is in great demand," Dr. Shailaja said.

Dr. Shailaja was happy that the controversy over the heavenly body Pluto had finally been settled. Its status has been questioned for several years now. "I have been hearing it for the last 10 years at least," she said.

The planetarium always took such developments seriously and eagerly passed on the information to the general public. Last year, it had produced a separate capsule on Xena (also known as UB313) when it was a hot topic and shown it to public, she added.

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