Fergie's Tech Blog

Scientists Decide Pluto’s No Longer a Planet

Pluto (with Charon in the distance)
Image source: NASA

For decades, it’s been confused with a cartoon dog and ridiculed as a puny poser. Now Pluto, the solar system’s consummate cling-on, has suffered its worst humiliation: It’s not even a planet anymore.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, leading astronomers Thursday stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is — and isn’t — a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

The historic vote by the International Astronomical Union officially shrinks Earth’s neighborhood from the traditional nine planets to eight — forcing future revisions of science textbooks and classroom charts. But the scientists made clear they’re as sentimental as anyone else about the ninth rock from the sun.

posted by Fergie @ 8/24/2006 09:33:00 AM