Of Cosmic Proportions
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As it happens, the IAU vote wasn't the only astronomy news last week. Researchers at the University of Arizona said they had found the first proof of the existence of "dark matter"--an invisible substance, unlike any known atoms or particles, whose gravity holds galaxies together. If their finding holds up, it could be a major step toward understanding the creation of the universe. But that wasn't what most people wanted to talk about. You don't have to be an astronomer, or an astrologer for that matter, to feel a special kinship to the planets, which, set against the immensity of intergalactic space, seem almost cozy: not "dark matter" or "black holes" but clumps of "rock" and "ice" circling our very own Sun. If people seem unduly concerned with the definition of a planet, perhaps it's for the very good reason that we live on one.
CORRECTION: In "Of Cosmic Proportions" we identified David Stevenson as an astronomer at Cornell. He is actually at Caltech. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.
With Mary Carmichael in Boston, Nomi Morris in Los Angeles and A. Christian Jean in New York
© 2006
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