The 9th Rock - Pluto

This is an opinion piece I wrote on September 20, 2008 regarding Pluto.
 
Since it's discovery in 1930, Pluto has held the distinction of being our solar systems 9th planet. However, on August 24, 2006, the IAU (International Astronomical Union) reclassified Pluto as a "dwarf planet". To this, I say, "Bravo!".
 
Don't get me wrong, I think Pluto is fascinating, and I am always interested in learning more about this far flung icy rock. However, It's properties do not fit well with the other planets. Our understanding of the world around us depends on classifications. Humans have a need to classify. We do it all the time. We classify whether some one is rich or poor, old or young, short or tall, etc. Classifying helps us to organize differences so that we may better  focus on them and learn from them  I could not help but shake my head when I read the following about the director of the New Horizons space mission, a supporter of maintaining Pluto's "planet" status:
 
 'He (Alan Stern) maintains that it's wrong to think about the solar system as if there were a sharp division between eight planets and everything else. Even dwarf planets are still planets - and in Stern's mind, they may be more representative of the planetary spectrum than the eight biggies.'
 
I can understand that Mr. Stern is concerned that the mission he is heading, reaching Pluto, will somehow suffer in people's imagination if it is not classified as a "planet", and therefor give his mission less importance, financially and intellectually. However, Pluto is just as interesting and mysterious as a "dwarf planet" as it would be as a planet. By reaching Pluto, we will learn a lot more about other trans-neptunian objects than we will about Saturn or Venus. Why? Because Pluto is more representative of those objects than the "eight biggies". Hence the reclassification, and the right one at that. If we continue to classify Pluto as a planet, than we must classify thousands of other objects in our solar system as planets. How could that possibly aid in our understanding of the nature of our surroundings?
 
I have heard the term "demoted" used in describing Pluto's reclassification. This is wrong. The object is no different than it was 10 years ago or a million years ago. The only change is that it has been associated with a group of objects that more closely resemble it.
 
A space probe will reach Pluto in 2015, and I am just as excited to see the first pictures as I was when it was considered a planet.