The stupidest consequence of the definition is not the classification of Pluto, but that there are only eight planets in the entire universe.
a planet is a celestial body that:
- is in orbit around the Sun
No. I copied and pasted that. The definition says 'the Sun'. There was a proposal to classify 'exoplanets' but the IAU never accepted it, and so those large masses orbiting other stars remain undefined.
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The rocks, ice, and gas out there doesn't give a shit what we think.
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Arguing that a planet must have cleared its orbit of other major bodies invokes an arbitrary size and location judgement for what constitutes a planets orbital space and what constitutes a major body.
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The argument that the inclusion of Pluto would require the inclusion of a lot of other planets and that that is obviously bad/wrong is absurd. Why can't a system have a whole lot of planets?
I propose an unoriginal definition of a planet:
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Large enough to become spherical under its own mass.
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Too small to fuse hydrogen, regardless of its presence.
I think we should really consider the term "planet" to be somewhat vague, and use the term "proper planet" when referring to all the things that match my proposed definition. The proposed definition includes things we have other names for and that's okay; we just use those other names when we need the extra specificity, like moon, rouge planet, dwarf planet, etc.
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Only USA people are arguing against it be cause of national pride, it's the "planet" they had discovered. Among astronomers the consensus is established.
You overestimate how many of us even know that. It was probably mentioned in school I guess, but this is the first I remember hearing it. I did do kindergarten to 2nd grade in a different country though.
Why do you think you were taught about it? What you learn at school is heavily influenced by the "national myth". It's most visible in your history lessons, but science is also impacted, it will be biased towards your culture's scientists and discoveries. I am observing that in Europe too, I'm not saying the USA are worse on that.
That's why I assume ir was taught, but as I mentioned I have no memory of it, so it wasn't taught that strictly. I went to school in a county that had schools named after "Stonewall Jackson" and the like, so I'm sure biases were baked in.
