Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

nein

It’s like everything I learned in grade school was wrong.

Pluto is no longer one of the nine planets of the solar system.

The International Astronomical Union in Prague ruled today that the much-maligned Pluto no longer qualifies as a planet under historic new guidelines, thereby stripping Pluto of the planetary status it has held since it was discovered in 1930, news services reported.

The prestigious international group in the Czech Republic today spelled out the basic tests a celestial body needs to pass before it can be deemed 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.”

It’s the last part of the definition that doomed Pluto. Its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s.

(Washington Post: “Astronomers Say Pluto Is Not a Planet” - 08/24/06)

I wonder how long it will take, though, before all the public school science textbooks are updated…