🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec25.193205.1@stsci.edu> gawne@stsci.edu writes:
>In article <1992Dec24.193342.29953@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com>, 
>billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
> 
>> My definition of asteriod is: any body that orginated in the
>> "asteriod belt" (between Mars and Jupiter). etc etc

	Help! It would be useful to learn what are the "official" uses
of the words according the IAU (and IUGG?). I have a hard enough time helping
students try to keep meteor, meteorite, and meteoroid straight when
there seems to be general disagreement on the distinctions between the
meaning of the words asteroids, comets and, yes, planets. I posted
this question recently in sci.astro but so far no one has come to the
rescue. 

	Is anyone willing to demote Pluto/Charon to asteroid status,
change Chiron from "asteroid" to comet, buck public sentiment to
avoid naming a body orbiting mostly a little beyond Pluto "Planet X", or
think about the use of the term "worlds" that some seem to favor for
large bodies even if not orbiting the Sun?



 


	

Joseph Cain		cain@geomag.gly.fsu.edu   
cain@fsu.bitnet		scri::cain