In The News: Pluto!

That's right, Pluto is in the news! No, not that Pluto, the planet. You know...the one from space? The endless debate of whether or not Pluto is a planet has (for now) an answer. The answer is yes! Plus, special bonus planets.

The International Astronomers Union (IAU) came up with a solid definition for a "planet" on Wednesday, and Pluto made the cut. Over 2,500 astronomers gathered in Prague, asking questions like "Does celestial size matter?", and ultimately coming up with 2 key requirements. 1) The body in question must orbit a star without being a star itself, and 2) it must be large enough in mass for its own gravity to pull it into a spherical shape.

With this new definition our solar syatem expands and includes 12 planets. The definition created new categories to acknowledge the technological advances that now allow astronomers to look deep into space, and as a result, 3 more celestial bodies made the cut and are now (pending finalization) planets.

The important new category is Plutons. These are distinguished from classical planets in that they reside in orbits around the sun that take longer than 200 years to complete. This category adds Xena (yes, named after the TV show) and Charon, two celestial bodies, while another, Ceres, would be known as a dwarf planet.

Now every child that ever won a science fair with a model of the solar system will have an astrisk by their record. They'll have to live in shame because their model was inaccurate. All those baby cradle-models will have to be recalled. You don't want your children growing up with a false sense of satisfaction thinking they know the names of all 9 planets do you? They would be laughed at! Then, they'd get to high school and look at an astronomy textbook and realize their whole life they've been living a lie. Ok, so I'm just being a total loser, but things will have to change I guess. New textbooks and new toys being the most obvious.

Apparently, they're not done yet though. Astronomers speculate that there may be (under these specifications) hundreds of planets in our solar system. Well, if that's true, it looks like our secret society has just gotten a whole lot more public. Being on one of the 9 planets in the solar system is much cooler than being on one of the 136. Takes away the uniqueness makes it a lot less special. But you know what? I'd like to see somebody try and make a model of that for the science fair.