A great number of our members grew up reciting Pluto as the ninth planet in our solar system. For many it came as a disappointment that what for years was held as truth was recently changed, where we no longer have 9 but rather 8 planets in our solar system.
How did that happen? And why does that matter to a Freemason?
Pluto was discovered in 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh and was originally called “Planet X”, until it was renamed “Pluto” at the suggestion of an 11-year-old English girl. After much study it was found that Pluto’s diameter is around 1500 miles, less than 1/5th the size of Earth’s diameter. Further research in 2005 discovered other bodies more distant than Pluto of a similar size, notably a body named “Eris” whose diameter is 1600 miles. Like Pluto, Eris was in an area known as the “Kuiper Belt”, a belt of stellar objects that extends from Neptune out some 5 billion miles.
This led astronomers to begin to question what constitutes a planet. Therefore in 2006 at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, Czech Republic, the definition of a planet was specified as meeting three criteria:
- The object must orbit the Sun.
- The object must possess enough gravity to form itself into a sphere.
- The object must have “cleared the neighborhood” of its orbit.
It is the third criterium that Pluto, as well as Eris and other large objects in the Kuiper Belt, failed to meet. “Clearing the neighborhood” refers to the fact that planets have sufficient gravity to either absorb smaller local bodies or sling them away from their orbit. Therefore Pluto lost its designation as our ninth planet. Yet because it does have an identifiable moon, scientists now refer to Pluto as a “Dwarf Planet” – not a planet per se, but still a fascinating body in our planetary neighborhood!
Why does this matter to a Freemason? Because we believe that labels do not define, but rather are methods used to try to simplify and compartmentalize that which is observable. We are not afraid to question labels or the history that has led to them. We make good men better by teaching each man to free their mind from the constraints imposed by various influences upon him. By doing this, a man begins to clearly observe the world around him. He gains insights to explain that which is confounding to most, enabling him to be a better version of himself. In the end, a man is enabled to be a builder of a better life and a better world.
