New Hit Single: "Pluto the Previous Planet"

By Nancy Atkinson - April 6, 2011 at 5:37 PM UTC | Planetary Science

I see the folks attending the third

.astronomy

(dotastronomy) conference this year have been busy -- hacking away and creating all sorts of ingenious tools, websites and ... songs. Here's astronomer

Amanda Bauer

and her band of renown with their new song, "Pluto the Previous Planet."

So, are all these astronomers Pluto-huggers? Not necessarily. Amanda writes on her website,

Astropixie

:

as much as i like the song as it is, the last verse might lead one to believe that i would like to reinstate pluto as a planet. i want to state for the record that this is NOT the case! i'm pleased that astronomers have decided on a definition of a planet that is based on some actual physics! the song is just fun and i hope people enjoy it.

And speaking of Pluto, make sure you check out

Clyde Tombaugh's Ten Commandements for Would-Be Planet Hunters,

too.

Also, take a look at the .astronomy 3 trailer below to see what else this group of geeks has been up to this week. Who ever said astronomers don't know how to have a good time?

.astronomy3 Trailer from Markus Poessel on Vimeo.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com