orbiting body with "a lovely, round shape" should be called a planet. "It was purely a scientific affair," Watanabe said. Some critics called for delaying the decision for up to three years, claiming the panel jumped the gun. Binzel replied that "a diverse community" outside the astronomy field is "asking for things to happen." The panel has already modified the proposal since the conference began last week. Some experts grumbled that the final draft had emerged just an hour before the debate began. A key modification was to drop a plan to call Pluto and similar objects "plutons." The change came after geologists around the world criticized IAU last week for neglecting the traditional use of the word "pluton" as the name for an igneous rock. One panel member quipped that geologists should attack software- maker Microsoft, not astronomers, for the "pluton" oversight because the word did not appear in the panel's spellchecker. Tuesday's debate ended with the straw poll but was expected to continue in private groups until Thursday, when the conference's 2,300 astronomers were scheduled to vote. The debate, which was covered by Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa, "is still open," Christensen said.
