Pitiless Astronomy Disappoints Child

By Staff
Published on November 13, 2007
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“I don’t understand,” said a young boy named Anton. “How can they just not make it a planet anymore?”

Having just finished a school project on Pluto, Anton was understandably shaken up when his favorite celestial body was demoted to “dwarf” status last year. After a few strokes stroke of a pen, his favorite planet was no longer a planet.

Anton’s dad, Robert Klose, writing for the Christian Science Monitor, expresses his son’s disappointment and frustration at the loss of the beloved Pluto. Klose writes that his son felt “like a man without a country, or, in this case, a planet.”

Klose tried to console his son saying, “In eight years we’ll get our first real look at Pluto. Then who knows? Maybe they’ll decide it’s a planet again.”

“Do you really think so?” Anton asked with hopeful expectation. We’ll have to wait and see. —Cara Binder

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