pluton

[Benjamin Zimmer]

WOTY candidate?

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/16/AR2006081601830.html
Washington Post
Pluto, Soon to Orbit in a Less Important Circle?
Thursday, August 17, 2006;  Page C01
[...]
A committee of astronomers sat around a table in Prague last week and
reflected on whether Pluto should be called a planet. Yesterday, the
seven-member Planet Definition Committee released a proposal that will
be hotly debated leading up to a vote next Thursday. This star chamber
suggests that Pluto shift from its status as the underdog ninth planet
to become leader of a new category of subplanets called plutons.
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A Sep. '96 post on the Usenet group sci.astro suggests that sci-fi
writer Fred Pohl used "pluton" as a generic term for Plutolike objects
in his 1992 novel _Mining The Oort_. Anyone know if this is the
origin?


--Ben Zimmer

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