Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 12:32:58 -0500
Subject: DPS Mailing #06-24: DPS Election Results...
Greetings, DPS members,
+------------------CONTENTS---------------------------------+
1) 2006 DPS Election Results
2) DPS Press Release on Redefinition of a Planet
3) Upcoming Workshops and Meetings
+------------------------------------------------------------+
1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1
2006 DPS ELECTION RESULTS
Voting in the 2006 DPS election ended August 1, although the final tally
of the votes had to await the Secretary's return from travel to count
paper ballots. The vast majority of members who voted did so online,
making the first online election a success.
Many thanks to all the candidates for their willingness to serve the DPS,
and to all who voted.
Congratulations to those elected:
Vice-Chair: S. Alan Stern
Committee: Athena Coustenis and Adam Showman
2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2
DPS PRESS RELEASE (Released 16 August 2006)
"Planetary Scientists Support Proposed Redefinition of a Planet"
Recent discoveries of objects in the outer reaches of our Solar System
have forced scientists to reconsider what it means to be a planet.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has proposed a new definition
of a planet as a celestial body whose gravity is strong enough for it to
be nearly round in shape and which is in orbit around a star but is
itself neither a star nor a satellite of a planet. According to
this definition, the nine traditional planets in our Solar System would
be joined by Ceres (the largest of the asteroids), by Charon (Pluto's
largest moon), and by 2003 UB313 (the provisional name for a
recently discovered object larger and more distant from the Sun than
Pluto). Pluto and Charon would be regarded as a double planet, rather than
as a planet and satellite, because their center of gravity lies outside
of Pluto itself (the only such case known in our Solar System.) There is
a candidate list of additional objects that may be large enough to qualify
as planets, subject to confirmation by the IAU.
The IAU resolution also recognizes Pluto as the prototype of a new class
of planetary objects to be known as "plutons." In contrast to the
classical planets, plutons typically have quite non-circular orbits and
take more than 200 years to orbit the Sun. With increasingly sensitive
and broad searches of the outer solar system well underway, it is
quite likely that additional Pluto-like planets will be discovered.
The Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical
Society is the world's largest international professional society of
planetary scientists. The DPS Committee, elected by our membership,
strongly supports the IAU resolution. It was proposed after two years of
careful review by an international panel of expert planetary
scientists, followed by a broadly representative international group
of historians, writers, and scientists. The new definition is clear
and compact, it is firmly based on the physical properties of
celestial objects themselves, and it is applicable to planets found
around other stars. It opens the possibility for many new Pluto-like
planets to be discovered in our Solar System.
The proposed definition will be brought to the IAU General Assembly
for a vote on August 24, 2006. As representatives of an
international community of planetary scientists, we urge that the
resolution be approved.
Dr. Richard G. French
Chair, DPS Committee
3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AND MEETINGS
1) AGU Kuiper-Belt Session (December, 2006)
Announcing a special session on Kuiper belt objects to be held at
the American Geophysical Union's December meeting in San Francisco.
DPS members with an interest in contributing are encouraged to submit
an abstract by the 7 September 2006 deadline. The web page at
http://www-691.gsfc.nasa.gov/cosmic.ice.lab/agu-f06.htm
has both a session description and an abstract submission link. We hope
to see many DPS members in San Francisco in December for an exciting
exchange of research results on KBOs.
The Session Conveners,
Reggie Hudson, Eckerd College, Florida (hudsonrl @ eckerd.edu)
Marla Moore, NASA Goddard (marla.h.moore @ nasa.gov)
John Cooper, NASA Goddard (John.F.Cooper @ nasa.gov)
2) SATELLITE FORMATION WORKSHOP AT DPS
An afternoon workshop on the formation, evolution, and composition of
the satellite systems of the outer planets and Kuiper Belt objects will
be held on Sunday, October 8, in conjunction with the 38th DPS meeting.
Confirmed speakers at this writing are D. Stevenson, G. Schubert,
B. Buratti , T. Johnson, R. Sari, I. Mosqueira, D. Matson, F. Nimmo, and
P. Estrada.
The Org. Comm.: Paul R. Estrada, Dale Cruikshank, Jack Lissauer, Tobias Owen
3) BELTON SYMPOSIUM
Dear Colleagues,
We would like to remind you that several deadlines for the Belton
Symposium that will be held November 10 & 11 in Tucson, AZ are coming up:
Abstract Submission Deadline: August 31, 2006
Early Registration Deadline : September 15, 2006
After this deadline the registration fee will increase. For registration
and details see http://www.noao.edu/meetings/belton