IN BRIEF
Planet pluto :No plan to revise textbook . . . yet
The Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) will not immediately revise the content of textbooks regarding the solar system following the decision of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to downgrade Pluto to a "dwarf planet", an official said yesterday.
The Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology will have to study the matter first, said Obec deputy secretary-general Areerat Watanasin.If it's deemed fit to revise the content in accordance with IAU's decision, the institute would then discuss the changes with the Obec and an expert committee, she said. At the IAU General Assembly in Prague on Thursday, top astronomers from 75 countries voted to limit planets to the first eight discovered, while Pluto would be considered a "dwarf planet". Astronomers decided that to be considered a planet, an object must be in orbit around the sun, must have enough mass for gravity to form it into a spherical shape and must have cleared all debris from it's orbital path, they said. For more than 75 years since its discovery in 1930 by late astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, schoolchildren have been taught that Pluto was a planet. Just 2,360 kilometres across, Pluto will now be considered a "dwarf planet" along with its major moon Charon, the asteroid Ceres and the object designated 2003 UB313, also known as "Xena".
|
