Reunion

8/14/05 – 8/20/05

By C. Zaitz

Summer is the season for reunions. I recently went to my High School reunion in My Home Town, NY. Reunions make us think of the passing of time, and for me it was a time of introspection, of remembering. The prospect of facing all my old classmates was daunting. Would they look the same, just more wrinkles? Would anyone recognize me? In the midst of trying to recognize faces and names, I looked up and saw my old friends, Jupiter and Venus, hanging quietly in the western sky, reflecting their placid light on the gently rippled Erie Canal. Somehow I felt comforted and at home, though I no longer lived there and no longer knew these people. I thought of the planets, secure in their courses, orbiting year after year, consistent and reliable. The Solar System, the nine planets, moving like clockwork. Even though time had passed, people had changed, I had changed, the same nine planets circle the sun as they have since it all began. Then I returned home and found that we’d discovered another “planet” in my old, familiar Solar System.

I suppose it’s good news, or at least exciting news, but debate is underway about this new “planet” already. Should we take away the quotes and call it a real planet, or should we better define what a planet is? Some astronomers think Pluto is too small to be classified a planet. It is smaller than many moons in the Solar System, including ours. We’ve already discovered other small bodies beyond Pluto, like Sedna and Quaoar. They are considered “planetoids” because of their diminutive sizes, but this new discovery seems to be larger than Pluto, not smaller. How can we call it planetoid without addressing Pluto’s status? It is farther away than Pluto, within the realm of space we have designated The Kuiper Belt. Perhaps there are more such bodies out there. Scientists predict that there are. We could end up with a dozen or more planets in our Solar System!

We have to name the new discovery. Sedna was named for an Inuit sea goddess, and Quaoar was named after a creator deity of the Tongva people native to Los Angeles before European arrival. The International Astronomical Union has the responsibility of officially naming all heavenly bodies. (No one else has the authority, so save your money if you are tempted to buy a star – they aren’t selling them!) Most of the cool old Roman names are taken, not only by planets, but by the innumerable moons and asteroids within our Solar System. Names will be getting more creative, and therefore more obscure and unfamiliar.

Most of us will probably never see these newly discovered bodies. Has anyone ever seen Pluto? Even Neptune or Uranus? These distant objects require telescopes to view. Though we don’t see the planets often, it is somehow comforting to think of the Solar System we knew when we were in school. Adding new planets is jarring to the psyche, rather like seeing the changes in faces I hadn’t seen in many years. We have to make a new wrinkle in our brains for these new discoveries. It can be uncomfortable. But I’m looking forward to the new wrinkle! It’s inevitable, as I learned at the reunion. They aren’t going away- in fact, they’ve been there the whole time.

Meanwhile, there are some planets that you can easily see, no telescope required. Mars has been creeping into the evening sky, and now is approaching its best and brightest appearance in October. You will have to wait a little now to see it, since it doesn’t even rise until 10pm, but as Fall approaches, it will be rising earlier every night. Jupiter is still gleaming boldly in the west after sunset, and though Venus is still on stage, her brilliancy is overshadowed by the beautiful sunset in which she is cloaked.

Until next week, my friends, enjoy the view!