Despite demotion, Pluto will keep a place in Maine

Friday, August 25, 2006

By MEREDITH GOAD, Staff Writer

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Astronomers may have stripped Pluto of its planetary status Thursday, but the plucky celestial also-ran still holds an honored position in Aroostook County

hanging on the wall at the Houlton Information Center.

The International Astronomical Union, meeting in Prague, downgraded Pluto to a dwarf planet. That leaves the solar system with just eight full-fledged ''classical'' planets instead of nine.

Pluto is still held in high regard, however, in the universe of northern Maine.

The planet

um, dwarf planet

is represented by a half-inch wooden ball that is a part of the Maine Solar System Model created by a geology professor at the University of Maine-Presque Isle and lots of volunteers.

''We're not planning on taking down Pluto,'' said Kevin McCartney, the professor behind the project.

The scale model

one mile equals 93 million miles, the distance from the Earth to the sun

took four years to complete and begins with a wooden representation of the sun on the Presque Isle campus.

It is spread out over 40 miles along Route 1, where passing travelers can gawk at each planet and test their memories of 7th-grade science class.

Venus is a plastic-foam ball 5.2 inches in diameter that floats on top of a pole at the Budget Traveler Motor Inn. Earth is at Percy's Auto Sales.

McCartney said that, if anything, the solar system model will probably grow. He plans to add asteroid Ceres and 2003 UB313, an icy object larger than Pluto that is also known as Xena, after the warrior princess. Those two objects also were designated dwarf planets Thursday.

''I think we will include at least some dwarf planets,'' McCartney said. ''If it ever gets to dozens, we're probably not going to build dozens of these things all over the place, but I would like to have some representative examples, for sure.''

McCartney said he isn't sure exactly where the dwarf planets will be put into orbit.

Adding more objects to the solar system model requires lots of construction, getting landowners' permission to plant the orbs on their property, and the cooperation of the Maine Department of Transportation.

Complicating matters is the elliptical orbit of these objects.

''Where we put the model depends on whether we want to put it where (the dwarf planet) is presently or where it is on the average,'' McCartney said. ''The thing with these outer planets is their orbits around the sun take centuries, and so I don't know if it makes sense to put it at its average location.''

If astronomers keep discovering new dwarf planets, McCartney conjectured, the solar system model could one day stretch all the way down the coast.

McCartney said Pluto's reclassification is an excellent illustration for students and the public of the scientific process at work.

''As you learn,'' he said, ''you sometimes have to reorganize because certain patterns come out that didn't manifest themselves earlier.''

Fans of Pluto shouldn't feel too disappointed.

''Just think how many good friends it has its own size beyond it, so it doesn't have to feel that it's the dregs of the classical planets,'' said Gene Clough, who teaches Lunar and Planetary Science at Bates College in Lewiston. ''It can be a leader of the dwarf planets.''

Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:

mgoad@pressherald.com''>mgoad@pressherald.com

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