Will Sedna get Pluto ejected from planet club?
THE most distant known member of the solar system has been detected by astronomers in a discovery that casts serious doubt on Pluto’s status as a planet. The frozen world, which has been named Sedna after an Inuit goddess of the ocean, is almost as large as Pluto. This has led many scientists to question whether the ninth and smallest of the Sun’s planets deserves the same astronomical distinction as the Earth, Saturn and Jupiter. If the apparent similarity in size and structure between Pluto and Sedna is confirmed, it could force astronomers to tear up the nine-planet model of the solar system that has stood since 1930. They would be left with two options — to name Sedna as the tenth planet, which few scientists think likely or sensible, or to reconsider Pluto’s already shaky claim to planethood, experts said yesterday.
