Why I am perfectly fine with not calling Pluto a “planet”

The solar system is a much more interesting, complicated place if we throw out the classical “Solar System has 9 planets” model we learned in grade school. And Pluto is just as special.

In science, the term “planet” is no longer useful. It’s too vague and general.

The term goes back thousands of years to a time when the visible objects in our own solar system were lumped in with the stars. They only difference between “planets” and stars, as far as our ancestors could tell, is planets didn’t...