August 24, 2006

Poor, poor Pluto

Well, the IAU has spoken and we're down to 8 planets now. As noted here before, the fate of Pluto and other orbiting things of its size has been under discussion for a while now; it appeared that we might jump up to 12 planets for a while, but instead we've dropped down to 8. That's too bad IMHO - I always liked little Pluto with its ginormous moon, looping around out there -

You can read many news releases about the decision.

It's been odd working at an astronomical institution and not having this be the buzz of the hallways. I guess that's what happens when most of your staff are either solar or extragalactic astronomers. The planets are in that in-between zone that I don't think anyone here actually studies....

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