| ...deciding the privelege of who gets to call a 1,000km lump of rock "Xena", I have trouble seeing why the issue makes any difference -- at least, according to the article. Why does it matter if we choose to call something a "planet", an "Oort body", a "Kuiper body", or what-have-you? Quite seriously: where is the value in these exceedingly subtle shades of distinction? What does it add to our knowledge of heavenly bodies? I would like to think there is a reason for what strikes me, at first reading, as "button-sorting-and-bottle-washing." Perhaps, in my ignorance, I simply am unfamiliar with said reason; can anyone tell me why it matters? |
