The posts in this weblog are mainly about history, heritage, language, art, and culture of Persia (that is named Iran since 1934). Persia is, therefore, equal to Iran, and Persian is equal to Iranian. Note that Persian is a nationality not an ethnicity. Pars (or Fars) is the major ethnicity in Persia but there are also Persian Kurds or Arabs. Similarly, the official language in Persia is Persian (Farsi is the local name and may not be used internationally). For more details please read my posts.
Deciding Pluto fate
* Also available in Persian language
A few weeks ago there was a program in
Discovery channel about the solar system and its planets. Pluto, which we knew it as a planet for more than 70 years, is not alone. Just like the astroid belt that exists between Mars and Jupiter, there is another astroid belt after Neptune, and Pluto is just one of those astroids! If Pluto was the largest astroids, the problem was not so serious. The point is that another astroid in that belt is discovered, which is larger than Pluto.
Now if we want to define a planet based on its size, we should consider the astroid larger than Pluto also a planet. Another option is to remove the name of Pluto from the list of planets of the solar system. Such a problem had also happened for the astroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers had listed four planets in that region, which later were removed from the list and all included in the astroid belt.
Next week (21 August 2006), for 12 days, there is a conference in Prague, the capital city of Czech Republic. Astronomers are going to agree on definition of "planet," and decide on Pluto fate. I predict to have a solar system with only 8 planets and two astroid belts.
Read the detailed news in
BBC.
Labels: Astronomy