That PDF says “Definition of a Planet in the Solar System” and “The IAU therefore resolves that planets and other bodies in our Solar System be defined into three distinct categories in the following way”.
I mean, what would you call the big, roughly ball-shaped thingies orbiting Kepler-62?
They attempted to create a definition for an “exoplanet” but that never passed, so aggregations of matter orbiting stars outside the solar system have no official name.
I feel quite confident that we, as a species, will one day, in the not too distant future (maybe even next Sunday CE), come collectively to the conclusion that things that behave like the planets of our solar system but do so with regards to a different star also deserve the honour of being called planets. That’s the least bit of faith I have in humanity.
That PDF says “Definition of a Planet in the Solar System” and “The IAU therefore resolves that planets and other bodies in our Solar System be defined into three distinct categories in the following way”.
I mean, what would you call the big, roughly ball-shaped thingies orbiting Kepler-62?
Because planets only exist in the solar system.
They attempted to create a definition for an “exoplanet” but that never passed, so aggregations of matter orbiting stars outside the solar system have no official name.
Uranus is an aggregation of matter.
I feel quite confident that we, as a species, will one day, in the not too distant future (maybe even next Sunday CE), come collectively to the conclusion that things that behave like the planets of our solar system but do so with regards to a different star also deserve the honour of being called planets. That’s the least bit of faith I have in humanity.