Excerpt from He An 'an

1930, clyde tombaugh discovered a mysterious and distant planet-Pluto. In the next few decades, it was once thought that there were nine planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. But today, when we talk about the solar system, there are only eight planets left-in August 2006, after voting, the International Astronomical Union officially defined Pluto as a "dwarf planet".

In fact, Pluto's "identity crisis" did not start from this. As early as 2000, people were surprised to find that the rebuilt Hayden Planetarium was open to the public. There is no model of pre-planet Pluto in the relative size exhibition area of solar system celestial bodies in Hayden Planetarium. This "demotion" incident caused an uproar, and the Hayden Planetarium became the focus of public opinion. As the curator of the museum, Neil Degrees Tai Sen was involved in this storm, and started his journey to explore Pluto.

In 2005, a new celestial body, Neptune, was discovered in the Kuiper Belt. How to locate eros? The discovery of new celestial bodies endangered Pluto's position. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union officially defined Pluto as a "dwarf planet" after voting. Faced with this result, the public did not buy it, and there was also a debate within the astronomical community.

There have been interesting reports about Pluto's demotion in newspapers, cartoonists drew ingenious cartoons, composers wrote affectionate songs, the legislature passed relevant bills, astrologers also expressed their opinions, and people even held funerals for Pluto ... Pluto, which is billions of kilometers away from the earth, triggered a collision between rationality and emotion in contemporary society.

As the curator of Hayden Planetarium, Tai Sen described in detail the whole process from Pluto's first discovery to its name, and then to its demotion after voting at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union. He approached the media, experts and the public in the whirlpool of controversy and experienced the collision of culture, business and science.

The following excerpt is from Neil, curator and astrophysicist of Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History. Degrees? Tai Sen's book "The Rise and Fall of Pluto" has been published with the authorization of the publishing house.

The ups and downs of Pluto, by Neil Degrees Tai Sen, translated by Yongchun Zheng Liu Han, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, August 20 19.

Everyone thinks that the International Astronomical Union "murdered" Pluto.

Pluto's new dwarf planet status inevitably affects the whole world. On August 25th, 2006, the day after the International Astronomical Union voted, it became a new starting point of the planetary calendar. The day before this day is "before the era of dwarf planets"

(BD, before dwarves)

The days that followed were "the era of dwarf planets"

(AD, from gnomes)

.

After the IAU voted, Bill Nye immediately sent me a new email, expounding his criticism of the latest development of this event:

Bill is not the only one who holds this view. Although this general understanding is not the original intention of the International Astronomical Union. They added the word "dwarf" before "planet", referring to what astrophysicists used to do: in dwarf galaxies,

(or a galaxy)

And dwarfs

(Still a star)

Both use the word "short". However, this does not help. Everyone thinks that the International Astronomical Union murdered Pluto.

In the controversy caused by Pluto's demotion, singer and composer Jonathan Coulton

(Jonathan kolton)

Imitating Pluto's enthusiastic tone, I wrote an ode for Pluto, named "I am your satellite". It is mentioned at the beginning of the song that Pluto has no halo system. Of course, this is not the standard for judging planets. Kolton just used it to pave the way:

Then, in poetic language, Song accused this group of astronomers involved in the dispute of arrogance and domineering:

The chorus captures an important fact that Phobos, as a satellite, is the closest to Pluto, the main star of all planets in the solar system, which makes Phobos affectionately call Pluto its satellite:

Romantic, Coulton directly back to reality:

My favorite part of this song is very similar to the words that may appear in Self-help Therapy:

This is definitely the most emotional sentence ever passed between two lifeless celestial bodies.

Another song inspired by Pluto was written by Jeff Mondak.

(Jeff Mundak)

With Alex Stanger.

(Alex Stangel)

Creation. The name of this song is straightforward and concise, and Pluto is no longer a planet. Mr. Mondak lives in Champaign, Illinois, USA. He is a children's poet and songwriter and a professor at the University of Illinois. Mr Stangel lives in peterborough, Ontario. He is a singer, composer, musician and music producer. Previously, the two of them had co-authored many songs. This time, they took the advice of Champaign Baxter Primary School students and wrote the song Pluto is no longer a planet.

The smog layer on Pluto.

This song has a cheerful tune and catchy lyrics. "Pluto is no longer a planet" appears repeatedly in the lyrics, which makes the children in the whole classroom sing this sentence in chorus. These are my two favorite lyrics:

The ending of the song is handled very skillfully:

Composers use anthropomorphic methods to create songs for dwarf planets, which is an obscure theme, or any theme, which has entered the field of popular culture. Another best sign is that humor masters use this theme as the material of jokes. Only when you know the content and background of the joke will you feel funny. In this way, comedians can skip the background introduction and tell fresh and interesting jokes. Have you ever heard the amazing joke about mercury? What about Neptune's joke? What about Nanmener's joke, the star system closest to the sun? It's hard to say which joke I have heard about them. But humorists can't miss this joke-those knowledgeable scientists argue about Pluto like a group of children. What's more, whether it's a humorous master or anyone else, who can't be influenced by Pluto's interesting image? It is both a planet and a non-planet; It is still a puppy, a puppy with its head down; Not to mention ice hockey.

Pluto and its satellites.

As we saw in the news headlines reported by the media before, Pluto's demotion opened a window for us to see what the social and cultural status quo is. This cultural situation is a mixture of different themes, including party politics, social protests, celebrity worship, economic indicators, academic dogma, education policy, social prejudice and chauvinism.

Pluto suffered a "demotion", but Pluto is still Disney's "star dog"

Members of parliament around the world don't seem to know how to use their time. In the United States, at least two state legislatures have decided to deal with Pluto on their own. In New Mexico, the hometown of clyde tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, the night sky is very clear, so there are many world-class astronomical observation facilities here, including Apache Observatory, Very Large Array, Magdalena Mountain Observatory and National Solar Observatory.

(located in Heizi Town, New Mexico)

. The state legislature considers the International Astronomical Union unfair. They insulted Pluto and the great New Mexico. Therefore, on March 8, 2007, the 48th state legislature, according to Congressman Jonny Marie Gutierrez.

(Joni Marie Gutierrez)

The proposed bill passed a joint commemorative bill: Pluto was declared as the planet of the state, and March 13, 2007 was designated as the "Pluto Planet Day" of the state.

The bill is not full of complaints. Through several paragraphs beginning with "Whereas …", we can learn some astronomical knowledge.

However, I am not sure about the following questions. If I shout "Pluto is not a planet!" At a public theater in New Mexico. Will you be arrested for this?

California is obviously more advanced than New Mexico in terms of laws and regulations related to Pluto. On August 24th, 2006, just a few minutes after Prague voted for Pluto's demotion, the California Parliament had already prepared a bill for deliberation. Although it failed, state senator Keith Richman

(Keith Richman)

And Joseph Cancia Milla.

(Joseph Cassie Milla)

Still enthusiastically introducing the bill everywhere. The bill, named HR36, considers IAU's thinking "narrow" and severely condemns IAU's decision to deprive Pluto of its planetary status, on the grounds that it has had a "great impact" on the people of California and the state's "long-term healthy financial operation".

The average distance to the sun.

Has a huge impact on the people of California. Such content is mixed in a series of "Whereas ...":

Healthy operation of California's finances? This problem is caused by the problem of the national education system.

What impact will it have on controversial political issues?

This also involves Mickey's pet dog:

Brutu (left) and Mickey (middle). Stills of the comic book "Mi Miao House".

Unlike the attitude of the California legislature, the Disney Company in burbank, California calmly accepted the fact that Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet. The company officially released a memo entitled "Pluto is still Disney's" star dog "despite its degraded planetary status. This is obviously the "seven dwarfs"

(They were dwarves from the beginning)

Published, they gave comfort when Pluto needed to care most:

The article continued:

Please note that unlike Gao Fei, the big dog in the cartoon, Bruto is just a pet dog and can't talk. Therefore, Pluto mentioned above will only howl at the moon a few times, and will not say that it will make a formal response to the entangled media.

Humor masters apply Pluto's demotion to things that represent cultural trends.

Californians always look a little strange to people in the northeastern United States. Just a few days after the International Astronomical Union voted to demote Pluto, the media of California Institute of Technology reported an alternative parade on the streets of Pasadena where the school is located:

In the face of the open coffin with Brutto, people attending the parade expressed their condolences:

In the parade, each planet was played by different people, all from California Institute of Technology. Next, this news report records the speeches of actors from Saturn and Earth, from which we can see the close relationship between them.

Professor michael brown, a planetary astronomer at California Institute of Technology, was there, and of course he brought his daughter Anabel.

(Anabel)

. In the parade, she played the role of Queen Eris, who was just discovered by Brown and others.

Documentary Star Trek stills.

(Brian O 'Neill)

I wrote a report about the behind-the-scenes story of Pluto's demotion, entitled Pluto, we think this is an opportunity. In this paper, he invented the dialogue between Pluto and an astronomer who held an administrative position. In this dialogue, astronomers told Pluto the news of its demotion:

You can imagine how this dialogue unfolded, and astronomers gently persuaded Pluto to accept its different views from other companions. Finally, the astronomer ended the conversation with a rhetoric used almost in the workplace struggle:

Some humorous masters are willing to use the story of Bruto's demotion as a model and apply it to things that represent cultural trends. The day Bruto was demoted, Mark Newman, editor of Major League Baseball official website.

(Mark Newman)

An article was published on the website entitled "Pluto has become an asteroid: once a planet was hit by its small size, which made fans extremely dissatisfied". This long article is undoubtedly one of the articles published on this website, and there is a paragraph describing the order of hitting the balls of the planets. Note that suppose nine batters, that is, nine planets, form a baseball team:

The "Consolatier" detector is responsible for informing Pluto of the news.

Dan shaughnessy

(Dan Shaughnessy)

He is a sports columnist for The Boston Globe. He can't help comparing Bruto with Boston Red Sox batter Manuel Ramirez.

(Manuel Manny Ramirez)

Compare it. On August 27th, 2006, shaughnessy wrote:

Then tell the story of sports. In September 2006, Whistler basketball team in knickerbocker, new york, USA.

(Knicks for short)

The performance was so disappointing that Andy Borovicz, a humorous political writer for the online newspaper The Porovic Report, said,

(andy borowitz)

In the title of the article, Bruto can't be ignored-"Scientists claim that the Knicks are no longer a basketball team: Prague Conference downgraded new york to the short team level".

This essay makes good use of innuendo to express the frustration of Knicks fans:

Pluto at different angles.

From here on, we can replace the Knicks with Pluto and the basketball team with planets, so that we can understand the real scientific debate shown in the article:

Later, Borovic's words were even more straightforward:

Pluto's demotion is not only related to sports. A month later, Andy Borovicz used Pluto's story to publish a critical article-"Scientists downgraded Bush's presidency: The White House and Pluto were reclassified". Refer to the election results in June 2006 165438+ 10.

The ruling Republican Party lost control of Congress.

, Borovic wrote:

Free new york Online Weekly Onion Network is different. Online newspapers are positioned as "the best news source in America" and will publish funny articles imitating other newspapers, with sharp words and witty remarks, which are extremely funny. These articles are disguised as serious news comments, so that in the middle of reading, people always carefully confirm whether they accidentally read The New York Times or Washington post. On June 5438+February 18, 2006, an article in this newspaper wrote that NASA accepted a task to inform Pluto of the resolution of the International Astronomical Union:

Considering that people should fully consider personal feelings and self-esteem when dealing with today's events, the article goes on to write:

10 year old fourth grade student Marlene Smith

(Mary Smith)

She studied at Riverview Primary School in Great Falls, Montana, USA. She was not afraid of the voting results of the International Astronomical Union, and submitted her task results to a competition organized by the National Geographic Society. The task of this competition is to conceive a formula that is helpful to remember 1 1 planetary order, not only to return Pluto to its original position in the planetary order, but also to boldly add a word to the lonely ceres between Mars and Jupiter and a word to the evening star.

Smith won the competition, and she wrote, "My exciting magic carpet just took me under nine court elephants."

My very exciting magic carpet has just sailed under nine palace elephants.

"。 This sentence is reminiscent of Disney's cartoon Aladdin, which can be used in the forthcoming book entitled 1 1 planet: a new vision of the solar system by National Geographic magazine. According to the Associated Press, singer and composer Lisa Loeb

(Lisa Loeb)

Inspired by this, I wrote a song called My Exciting Magic Carpet.

This is the best contempt.

The American Dialect Society upgraded Pluto to a verb.

While astrophysicists downgraded Pluto, the American Dialect Society, which has a history of more than 100 years, upgraded Pluto to a verb, making it the 17 "word of the year" selected by the organization-the word of the year in 2006:

Dialect society includes linguists, grammarians and related scholars. They just voted for fun, and the voting result is not part of the official announcement. The main task of Dialect Society is to analyze language, evaluate the development trend of language use and inject new words into English.

Documentary Star Trek stills.

If people often use some new words in their daily lives, dictionaries will naturally include them. "plutoed" and the recognized word "torpedo"

(attack with a torpedo)

"The meaning is similar, and the pronunciation rhythm is similar.

National broadcasting corporation

(NBC)

The Tonight Show didn't miss this topic. Soon, in the evening of June 65438+1October 65438+September, 2007, Jay Leno.

(Jay Leno)

The new word was mentioned in the opening remarks:

"I'm glad they chose Pluto instead of Uranus.

(According to Uranus)

. "

The irony of this sentence lies in Uranus.

(Uranus)

Sounds like "your anus"

(Your anus)

",Jay is deliberately so pronunciation.

(Jane Spencer)

The Wall Street Journal published a report entitled "Pluto Split Astrologers Degraded". This heavily reprinted article quoted the words of the American Federation of Astrologers and the British Astrological Association. The two organizations said they would stand in the same camp as Pluto, insisting that this icy celestial body is a real planet. Although the International Astronomical Union voted against its planetary status, it still has a great influence on our hearts. The following is my favorite part:

The second half of the article quotes Ms. Ackerman's criticism of the International Astronomical Union. She was dissatisfied that Pluto's demotion decision did not take into account the opinions of astrologers. The article then quotes Eric Francis.

(Eric Francis)

Words: "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time." Francis's website Planetary Wave Network represents the position of some medieval prophets, namely asteroid astrologers. Francis said that he welcomes Ceres, Eris and Phobos to join the ranks of dwarf planets, so that those who believe in astrology can use the star map in more other ways when interpreting their destiny through the universe.

This article is based on the astrologer Michael Luding of Vanity Fair magazine.

(Michael Luding)

The end of the words. Lu Ting said that he would consider adding new small celestial bodies, but he didn't believe that these days would have an impact on our daily life, because they were located in the outer region of the solar system. "The celestial body UB3 13 can't tell you whether Wednesday is suitable for dating." In fact, no celestial body in the sky can predict Wednesday's fortune, unless it is an asteroid that has been planned to hit the earth on Wednesday.

Let the children study hard at school.

The content of this article is taken from the book The Rise and Fall of Pluto, which was abridged and modified from the original work. Subtitles are edited and not owned by the original, and have been authorized by the publishing house.

Neil Degrees Tai Sen

Excerpt from He An 'an

Editor Zhang Jin

Proofread Chen Dianyan