Related papers: IAU Planet Definition: Some Confusions and Their M…
The current IAU definition of "planet" is problematic because it is vague and excludes exoplanets. Here, we describe aspects of quantitative planetary taxonomy and examine the results of unsupervised clustering of Solar System bodies to…
While one of the IAU's missions is to "serve as the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and surface features on them", the participation of the public in the naming of celestial objects has…
In antiquity, all of the enduring celestial bodies that were seen to move relative to the background sky of stars were considered planets. During the Copernican revolution, this definition was altered to objects orbiting around the Sun,…
6500+ exoplanets have been detected using various techniques. This prompted the emergence of many recent works on the taxonomy, or classification, of exoplanets. However, there is still no basic, fundamental definition of 'What is a…
The past 15 years have brought about a revolution in our understanding of our Solar System and other planetary systems. During this time, discoveries include the first Kuiper Belt Objects, the first brown dwarfs, and the first extra-solar…
In this brief communication we provide the rationale for, and the outcome of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) resolution vote at the XXIX-th General Assembly in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2015, on recommended nominal conversion…
A planet is an end product of disk accretion around a primary star or substar. I quantify this definition by the degree to which a body dominates the other masses that share its orbital zone. Theoretical and observational measures of…
The present naming convention for extrasolar planets used by the vast majority of researchers in the field is based upon an interpretation of the provisional I.A.U. standard for multiple star systems. With the existence of hundreds of…
The IAU-1976 System of astronomical constants includes three astronomical units (i.e. for time, mass and length). This paper reports on the status of the astronomical unit of length (ua) and mass (MSun) within the context of the recent IAU…
I solve the problem of nomenclature of planets, stars, and moons, and in doing so repair two of the IAU's blunders. Drawing and improving upon foundational work by Chen & Kipping, I describe a single, physics-based taxonomy that christens…
Recent resolutions passed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on astronomical reference systems, time scales, and Earth rotation models are the most significant set of international agreements in positional astronomy in several…
The Hubble law, widely considered the first observational basis for the expansion of the universe, may in the future be known as the Hubble-Lema\^itre law. This is what the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union…
To face recent observational results obtained in multi-wavelength studies from neutron stars and pulsars with the various theoretical models and to discuss on future perspectives on neutron star astronomy we organized a Joined Discussion…
I present a highly biased and skewed summary of IAU Symposium 314, "Young Stars and Planets Near the Sun," held in Atlanta. This summary includes takeaway thoughts about the rapidly evolving state of the field, as well as crowd-sourced…
Knowing the distance of an astrophysical object is key to understanding it. However, at present, comparisons of theory and observations are hampered by precision (or lack thereof) in distance measurements or estimates. Putting the many…
Nearly 50 years ago, in the proceedings of the first IAU symposium on planetary nebulae, Lawrence H. Aller and Stanley J. Czyzak said that "the problem of determination of the chemical compositions of planetary and other gaseous nebulae…
The apparent positions of planets are determined by means of the fundamental ephemerides, the precession-nutation models of the Earth, the gravitational effects and aberrations et al. Around 2000, many astrometrical conceptions, models and…
We present a summary of current research on planetary nebulae and their central stars, and related subjects such as atomic processes in ionized nebulae, AGB and post-AGB evolution. Future advances are discussed that will be essential to…
A law of semi-major axes in the Solar system is described. The proposed law is recommended as an additional criterion for planet definition as it represents a generating function of planetary distances.
Extrasolar planets are not named and are referred to only by their assigned scientific designation. The reason given by the IAU to not name the planets is that it is considered impractical as planets are expected to be common. I advance…