Holst Exonerated

[shostakovich]

Last week I saw a PBS program called "The Pluto Files". It was a humorous look at some of the fallout after Pluto's demotion from planet status. Fans of Gustav Holst, rejoice. "The Planets" was written about a dozen years before Pluto was "discovered". That has been used as the excuse for its exclusion for some 70 years. But now we can also ascribe Pluto's exclusion to prescience. Gustav, you're my man!
Shos

[Shapley]

I pointed out a while back that Pluto had to be demoted because a pair of plutoids had been discovered, both larger than Pluto, and were named by their discoverer Xena and Gabrielle, after the then-popular show about a scantily-clad warrior-princess and her sidekick who travel about a mythical world kicking butt while arousing male viewers. Scientist simply could not bear to have the next set of planets thus named, so they had to set the threshold for planethood at a leverl higher than Xena's and [/i]Gabrielle[/i]'s size. Thus Pluto was sacrificed to save the astronomers from future embarrassment.

[shostakovich]

I missed that story completely. It was not at all mentioned in The Pluto Files. It should have been. Thanks.
Shos

[Shapley]

Apparenlty, they found a way around it, anyhow:

Plutoid Formerly Known As 'Xena' To Be Named Eris, 'Gabrielle' To Be Given The Name Dysnomia.