How the word Planet is Defined

How the word Planet is Defined What is a planet?  Astronomers get this question a lot.  It seems like a simple-enough thing to ask about, but in reality  the definition of the term planet seems to be a moving target. Its also at the heart of a controversy that continues to spur debate in the astronomy community. To answer the question what is a planet? it helps to look back at the event that brought the issue to a head in 2006: the seeming demotion of Pluto  from planet to dwarf planet. Pluto: Planet or Not? In 2006, the International Astronomical Union  demoted a small ball of rock and ice out in the outer third of the outer solar system from planet status. Pluto became known as a dwarf planet.  The outcry, both from within and outside of the scientific community, was astounding and the subject is still under intense discussions today. The planetary science community, which is probably the best equipped to help define the term, was overruled by astronomers (not many of them planetary scientists) at an IAU meeting where the issue came up for discussion and a vote.   Why Define Planet At All? The argument of course, is that our current clumping of all the round, non-star, non-moon  objects in our solar system was not ideal. Clearly Mercury and Jupiter dont share much in common, yet they are classified as planets. In 2000, the New York Hayden planetarium was renovated, and one of the exhibits grouped the planets by similar features. This made them easier to study and understand. It also created a more coherent display with greater educational potential. However, it put Pluto as the odd world out.   That by itself didnt change the definition of planet, however. The idea of planet was under discussion for a long time before that. It continues to be an issue as scientists discover more and more worlds out there.   The 2006 decision by the IAU has been steeped in controversy among scientists, particularly those in planetary science who had not attended the meeting where a scant few astronomers voted on planetary status. However, beyond that gaffe, the  greater point of contention is that the definition as arrived at by the IAU committee frankly doesnt even make sense. What is the Definition of a Planet? Lets look at what the IAU thinks a planet is. There are three requirements:   a planet is a world that orbits the Sun and not another object;a planet is an object with sufficient gravity to become round;a planet is a world that has cleared its orbital path of debris. This last one was thought to be a problem for Pluto, although recent discoveries by the New Horizons spacecraft show that theres not much to clear around Pluto,  not even a ring!   One could argue that  Earth has not been able to completely clear its path of debris.  However, no one is arguing with the classification of Earth as a planet. Effectively the IAU was placing a distance cap on how far a planet can be from its host star. And this just doesnt make sense. So What Should the Definition Be? OK, so  the IAUs definition has problems, but its still clear that the definition of planet needs more thought and work. It is important to classify objects, its simply part of the scientific endeavour. Biologists classify life, while chemists classify compounds, and so on. But the means by which you classify the objects in a system needs to be cohesive and non-conditional. So what about the planets, and Pluto specifically? What if we just took the first two conditions laid forth by the IAU and let it go at that: massive enough to be round, but not so much that it ignites nuclear burning? That would leave the eight objects that we already consider planets and add in the ones that we currently call dwarf planets. It just so happens that Pluto is large enough that it formed itself into a sphere under the pressure of its own gravity.  And, this fact is at the heart of the IAUs third condition for planet-hood. But that isnt the end of the debate either, and for now, officially,  Pluto remains a dwarf planet.   Edited and updated by Carolyn Collins Petersen.

Biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, Jazz Age Icon and Author

Biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, Jazz Age Icon and Author Born Zelda Sayre, Zelda Fitzgerald (July 24, 1900  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ March 10, 1948) was an American writer and artist of the Jazz Age. Although she produced writing and art on her own, Zelda is best known in history and in popular culture for her marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald and her tumultuous battle with mental illness. Fast Facts: Zelda Fitzgerald Known For:  Artist, author of Save Me The Waltz, and wife of author F. Scott FitzgeraldBorn:  July 24, 1900  in Montgomery, AlabamaDied:  March 10, 1948 in Asheville, North CarolinaSpouse:  F. Scott Fitzgerald (m. 1920-1940)Children:  Frances Scottie Fitzgerald Early Life The youngest of six children, Zelda was born to a prominent Southern family in Montgomery, Alabama. Her father, Anthony Sayre, was a powerful justice on the Alabama Supreme Court, but she was the darling of her mother, Minerva, who spoiled young Zelda. She was an athletic, artistic child, equally interested in her ballet lessons and in spending time outdoors. Although she was a clever student, Zelda was mostly uninterested in her studies by the time she reached high school. Beautiful, spirited, and rebellious, Zelda became the center of her young social circle. As a teenager, she already drank and smoked, and enjoyed causing minor scandals by doing things like dancing â€Å"flapper† style or swimming in a tight, flesh-toned bathing suit. Her brash, daring nature was even more shocking because women of her social status were expected to be genteel and quiet. Zelda and her friend, future Hollywood actress Tallulah Bankhead, were frequently the topic of gossip. As a girl or a teenager, Zelda began to keep diaries. These journals would later prove to be the earliest signs of her creative mind, containing much more than a rote record of her social activities. In fact, excerpts from her early journals would eventually appear in iconic works of American literature, thanks to her relationship with a soon-to-be legendary novelist: F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Fitzgeralds In the summer of 1918, Zelda first met the 22-year-old Scott when he was stationed on an Army base just outside of Montgomery. Their first meeting, at a country club dance, would later be the basis for the first meeting between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Although she had several suitors at the time, Zelda quickly came to favor Scott, and they grew close over a shared worldview and their similarly creative personalities. Scott had big plans, and he shared them with Zelda, who became equal parts muse and kindred spirit. She inspired the character of Rosalind in This Side of Paradise, and the novel’s closing monologue is taken directly from her journals. Their romance was interrupted in October 1918, when he was reassigned to a base in Long Island, but the war soon ended and he returned to Alabama within a month. Scott and Zelda became deeply involved, and wrote to each other constantly after he moved to New York City in early 1919. They married in 1920, despite some objections from Zelda’s family and friends over his drink and his Episcopalian faith. That same year, This Side of Paradise was published, and the Fitzgeralds became notorious on the New York social scene, embodying the excesses and brilliance of the Jazz Age. In 1921, just before Scott’s second novel was finished, Zelda became pregnant. She gave birth to their daughter, Frances â€Å"Scottie† Fitzgerald in October 1921, but motherhood did not â€Å"tame† Zelda into a quiet domestic life. In 1922, she was pregnant again, but the pregnancy did not make it to term. Over the next couple of years, Zelda’s writing began to appear as well, mostly sharply-written short stories and magazine articles. Although she joked about her writing being â€Å"borrowed† for Scott’s novels, she did resent it too. After their co-written play The Vegetable flopped, the Fitzgeralds moved to Paris in 1924. Together in Paris The Fitzgeralds’ relationship was in a complicated state by the time they reached France. Scott was absorbed with his next novel, The Great Gatsby, and Zelda fell for a dashing young French pilot and demanded a divorce. Zelda’s demands were met with dismissal from Scott, who locked her in their house until the drama passed. In the months following, they returned mostly to normal, but in September, Zelda survived an overdose of sleeping pills; whether the overdose was intentional or not, the couple never said. Zelda was often ill around this time, and in late 1924, Zelda was unable to continue her traveling lifestyle and instead began painting. When she and Scott returned to Paris in the spring of 1925, they met Ernest Hemingway, who would become Scott’s great friend and rival. Although Zelda and Hemingway loathed each other from the start, Hemingway did introduce the couple to the rest of the Lost Generation expat community, such as Gertrude Stein. Increasing Instability Years passed, and Zelda’s instability grew – along with Scott’s. Their relationship turned volatile and more dramatic than ever, and both accused the other of affairs. Desperate for success of her own, Zelda took up the reins of her ballet studies again. She practiced intensely, sometimes for up to eight hours a day, and while she did have some talent, the physical demands (and the lack of support from Scott) proved too much for her. Even when she was offered a spot with an opera ballet company in Italy, she had to decline. Zelda was admitted to a French sanatorium in 1930 and bounced between clinics for physical and psychological treatments for around a year. When her father was dying in September 1931, the Fitzgeralds returned to Alabama; after his death, Zelda went to a hospital in Baltimore and Scott went to Hollywood. While in the hospital, however, Zelda wrote a whole novel, Save Me The Waltz. The semi-autobiographical novel was her biggest work to date, but it infuriated Scott, who had planned to use some of the same material in his work. After Scott’s forced rewrites, the novel was published, but it was a commercial and critical failure; Scott also derided it. Zelda didn’t write another novel. Decline and Death By the 1930s, Zelda was spending most of her time in and out of mental institutions. She continued to produce paintings, which were tepidly received. In 1936, when Zelda seemingly disconnected from reality, Scott sent her to another hospital, this one in North Carolina. He then proceeded to have an affair in Hollywood with columnist Sheilah Graham, bitter about how his marriage to Zelda had turned out. By 1940, though, Zelda had made enough progress to be released. She and Scott never saw each other again, but they corresponded until his sudden death in December 1940. After his death, it was Zelda who became an advocate for Scott’s unfinished novel The Last Tycoon. She was inspired and began working on another novel, but her mental health declined again and she returned to the North Carolina hospital. In 1948, a fire broke out at the hospital, and Zelda, in a locked room awaiting an electroshock therapy session, did not escape. She died at the age of 47 and was buried alongside Scott. Posthumous Discovery The Fitzgeralds had been on the decline when they died, but interest quickly revived, and they became immortalized as the icons of the Jazz Age. In 1970, historian Nancy Milford wrote a biography of Zelda that suggested she had been every bit as talented as Scott, but had been held back by him. The book became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and it heavily influenced future perceptions of Zelda. Save Me The Waltz subsequently saw a revival as well, with scholars analyzing it on the same level as Scott’s novels. Zelda’s collected writings, including the novel, were compiled and published in 1991, and even her paintings have been re-appraised in the modern era. Several fictional works have depicted her life, including several books and a TV series, Z: The Beginning of Everything. Although perceptions continue to evolve, the Fitzgerald legacy – of which Zelda is most definitely a huge part – has become deeply engrained in American popular culture.   Sources: Cline, Sally.  Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise. Arcade Publishing, New York, 2003.Milford, Nancy. Zelda: A Biography. Harper Row, 1970.Zelazko, Alicja. Zelda Fitzgerald: American Writer and Artist. Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Zelda-Fitzgerald.