Pluto: planet or “dwarf planet”?

• Autor(a) principal: Voelzke, Marcos Rincon
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Araújo, Mauro Sérgio Teixeira de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Ensino de Ciências e Matemática - REnCiMa
• Texto Completo: https://revistapos.cruzeirodosul.edu.br/rencima/article/view/6
• topic: Sistema Solar; Planetas; “Planetas Anões”; Divulgação científica; Solar System; Planets; Dwarf Planets; Scientific dissemination

In August 2006 during the XXVI General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), taken place in Prague, Czech Republic, new parameters to define a planet were established. According to this new definition Pluto will be no more the ninth planet of the Solar System but it will be changed to be a “dwarf planet”. This reclassification of Pluto by the academic community clearly illustrates how dynamic science is and how knowledge of different areas can be changed and evolves through the time, allowing to perceive Science as a human construction in a constant transformation, subject to political, social and historical contexts. These epistemological characteristics of Science and, in this case, of Astronomy, constitute important elements to be discussed in the lessons, so that this work contributes to enable Science and Physics teachers who perform a basic education to be always up to date on this important astronomical fact and, thereby, carry useful information to their teaching.