This morning CNN.com is reporting that Pluto is no longer a planet. This week the International Astronomical Union voted and stripped Pluto of is planetary status thus reducing the number of planets in our solar system to eight. Pluto was discovered in 1930 and has been considered a planet ever since. Pluto doesn’t make the cut under the new definition of a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” Pluto’s orbit overlaps Neptune’s orbit, so it is disqualified. Pluto will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets.” Calls to Pluto for comment were not immediately returned.
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Pluto, we hardly knew ye.
Sure, it's just a category change, and won't have any effect on the stars in their courses, but two problems come to mind:
1. All the mnemonics people have used to remember the planets ("My Very Eager Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets") are now wrong.
2. Astrologers are up the creek. Although they consider the sun and moon planets already, so maybe it won't affect them much.
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