Today the news reached me that Pluto is being stripped of its status as a planet. Poor wittle pwanet!
"The IAU determined last week that a planet must orbit the sun and be large enough to assume a nearly round shape, as well as 'clear the neighborhood around its orbit.' Pluto's oblong orbit overlaps Neptune's, which led the IAU to downsize the solar system to eight planets from the traditional nine.
McNamara argued that only about 400 of the union's thousands of members were present when the Aug. 24 vote was taken.
'This was not a statement by the astronomical community at large,' he said, adding that a petition opposing the IAU definition of a planet is circulating among the world's planetary scientists and astronomers." (From here.)
It'll always be a part of that planet song from elementary school that dances around in my head, even if some picky astronomers decide it's too bitty and too far away.
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