Can there really be twelve planets?
August 16th, 2006
(Artist’s rendering courtesy of IAU)
The International Astronomical Union, which is currently meeting in Prague, released a new draft definition of the term “planet” today. If the definition is approved on August 24, there officially will be twelve planets in our solar system. The three additions are Ceres (first asteroid ever discovered, located between Mars and Jupiter), Charon (a companion to Pluto) and the as-yet unnamed 2003 UB313. (BTW, 2003 UB313 has been unofficially named Xena by its discoverer.) IAU is “the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature,” which is a fancy way of saying that it is the organization’s job to answer the very question I posed as the title to this post.
Wow, talk about turning the world (or the planets I suppose) upside down…pretty cool, huh?
As I consider the enormity of this development, two things occur to me. First, IAU is meeting for nine days in Prague, and I’m certain this one spectacularly significant issue will dominate most of the conversations both in and out of the hallways. As I prepare to leave for Boston for ASAE & The Center’s Annual Meeting on Friday, I’m wondering if what we’ll be talking about will be nearly as consequential.
Second, and more important for association leaders, if something as foundational as our shared understanding of Earth’s solar system is open to change and reinterpretation, then there is not one thing currently happening in your organization so sacrosanct that it is above reconsideration or elimination. In these early years of the 21st century, everything is on the table, and that is precisely how it must be. Not for its own sake, as some naysayers like to suggest, but for our sake, the sake of the organizations in which we work, the members we serve and the understanding we have of the world in which we live.
Personally, I hope we will see the advent of the twelve planet solar system. (IAU will likely include even more planets in future years, so our solar system eventually will grow even bigger.) It will be a useful reminder to all of us that the human experience will always be one of shift, and that we shouldn’t fight it. We should embrace it.
BTW, if you’re wondering about the two posts, just chalk it up to the battle of man vs. machine. In this skirmish, the machine won. But I will not surrender!
Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Social Media, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, The Association Innovator, Associations and Science
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