Pluto and the Kuiper Belt:

Is Pluto a planet? And if not, what is a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO)?  In the new classification Pluto would be one of the largest KBOs.  NASA's New Horizons mission is on its way to Pluto and beyond, having gotten a gravity assist from Jupiter in February 2007.  The spacecraft was built at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory.


The discussion will focus on the following paper:  Pluto, Perception and Planetary Politics, an article by David Jewitt and Jane X. Luu.  This article touches on many of the issues, both scientific and political, surrounding the decision by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in August 2006 to remove Pluto from the list of planets.