My Dear Pluto,
It's paining to hear that the scientific community has thrown its axe of scrutiny right on your head. Knowing that they can't change your dimensions, they have changed their definitions. Losing an universal status you were enjoying for over 7 decades is not a triviality. You have always amused us with your so called eccentric orbit that often come within that of the Neptune, your mysterious composition, and hitherto unexplored surface. I don't know what others might think. But Venetia Burney Phair, who as a 11 year old schoolgirl suggested this name to you after the Roman God of wealth, might be looking for the proper reasons. What might William Tombaugh, who showed you to the world, have in his mind? Maybe, as his wife Patricia puts it, he is a scientist, and he knows why you have lost your elite membership of the planetary system in the solar family. Michael Brown, the discoverer of 2003UB313 (personally named 'Xena' by him), says: "I may go down in history as the guy who killed Pluto." I may have to change my favorite mnemonic that my teacher taught me, and which I teach my students, "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets". So what, my dear Pluto? Once again, you are in an elite group, this time as the leader. Yes! You're going to lead the group to be rightly known as 'Plutons'. You have always been the symbol of coolness. When the world bids tearful adieu to you, I wish you a happy journey through the realms of Space. We the earthlings will be happy to find you there from the 'New Horizons', in 2015.
New Horizons is the spacecraft NASA has sent this January to study Pluto. This vehicle would reach Pluto by the year 2015.
2 comments:
Hats off to Vijayshankar!
I really enjoyed reading this. Hope to get such nice write ups from you in near future as well. Why don't you try your hand in verse too? You can excel in that too.
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