El baile de los planetas
David Barrado y Navascués
¿Cuántos planetas hay en el Sistema Solar? ¿Cuál es la definición más idónea? ¿Cómo deben ser llamados? ¿Cómo se aplicaría a los objetos que se están encontrando fuera del Sistema Solar?
Ayer regresé de un largo viaje, tres semanas sin noticias, sin correo electrónico, en un mundo mucho más sencillo. Leí el primer periódico en el avión, el Wall Street Journal. Sorprendentemente, me encontré una noticia sobre la nueva definición del término «planeta». La Unión Astronómica Internacional (IAU) decidirá sobre este tema dentro de unos días. Se propone ampliar la deficinión de manera que Plutón, cuya naturaleza se ha discutido durante mucho tiempo, siga conservando el status. Así, Ceres, un planetoide cuya órbita se encuentra entre Marte y Júpiter, pasaría a ser un planeta de pleno derecho, al igual que otros objetos descubiertos recientemente y que se localizan a distancias más allá de la de Neptuno. Así, tendríamos uns sistema planetario con 12 planetas.
Desde mi punto de vista, creo que es un error, es una solución politica más que otra cosa, aunque mis objeciones son limitadas. En cualquier caso, creo que existen dos cuestiones que no se estan tratando adecuadamente. La primera se refiere a los nombres. Creo que deberíamos seguir usando la mitología greco-romana para los planetas del sistema Solar (y por supuesto, no usar nombres de programas de televisión o películas, que solo tienen significado dentro del contexto cultural de una o dos generaciones muy específicas). Por otra parte, la nueva definición debería considerar los casi 200 planetas descubiertos fuera del Sistema Solar, mediante el uso de diversos métodos, y cuyas propiedades en ciertos casos son mu distintas a los «hermanos» de la Tierra. Finalmente, me gustaría saber que ocurrirá con los objetos aislados de masa planetaria (xebarcos o planemos). ¿Son o no son planetas?
PD: Según transcribo esta entrada a MadrI+D, veo que Benjamín escribió sobre este mismo tema la semana pasada. Incluyo el enlace a su texto.
ENLACES:
IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature, Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers(IAU)
¿Qué es un planeta?…(DByN)
Sobre la diversidad de los Sistema Planetarios (DByN)
Observan el nacimiento de planetas gigantes solitarios (IAC)
Los astrónomos buscan una nueva definición de planeta(DByN)
¿De nueve a doce planetas?… en unos días lo sabremos (BM)
Más en…
El baile de los planetas
El baile de los planetas (II)
El baile de los planetas (III)
¿Qué es un planeta?…
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