So much for Pluto...

[Zaaphod]

Pluto is no longer considered a planet. This may change though, as Pluto seems to have a lot of fans out there.

Dinky Pluto loses its status as planet

By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer

August 24, 3:40 PM PDT

Pluto, beloved by some as a cosmic underdog but scorned by astronomers who considered it too dinky and distant, was unceremoniously stripped of its status as a planet Thursday.

The International Astronomical Union, dramatically reversing course just a week after floating the idea of reaffirming Pluto's planethood and adding three new planets to Earth's neighborhood, downgraded the ninth rock from the sun in historic new galactic guidelines.

The shift will have the world's teachers scrambling to alter lesson plans just as schools open for the fall term.

"It will all take some explanation, but it is really just a reclassification and I can't see that it will cause any problems," said Neil Crumpton, who teaches science at a high school north of London. "Science is an evolving subject and always will be."

Powerful new telescopes, experts said, are changing the way they size up the mysteries of the solar system and beyond. But the scientists at the conference showed a soft side, waving plush toys of the Walt Disney character Pluto the dog - and insisting that Pluto's spirit will live on in the exciting discoveries yet to come.

"The word 'planet' and the idea of planets can be emotional because they're something we learn as children," said Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped hammer out the new definition.

"This is really all about science, which is all about getting new facts," he said. "Science has marched on. ... Many more Plutos wait to be discovered."

Pluto, a planet since 1930, got the boot because it didn't meet the new rules, which say a planet not only must orbit the sun and be large enough to assume a nearly round shape, but must "clear the neighborhood around its orbit." That disqualifies Pluto, whose oblong orbit overlaps Neptune's, downsizing the solar system to eight planets from the traditional nine.

Astronomers have labored without a universal definition of a planet since well before the time of Copernicus, who proved that the Earth revolves around the sun, and the experts gathered in Prague burst into applause when the guidelines were passed.

Predictably, Pluto's demotion provoked plenty of wistful nostalgia.

"It's disappointing in a way, and confusing," said Patricia Tombaugh, the 93-year-old widow of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh.

"I don't know just how you handle it. It kind of sounds like I just lost my job," she said from Las Cruces, N.M. "But I understand science is not something that just sits there. It goes on. Clyde finally said before he died, 'It's there. Whatever it is. It is there.'"

The decision by the IAU, the official arbiter of heavenly objects, restricts membership in the elite cosmic club to the eight classical planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Pluto and objects like it will be known as "dwarf planets," which raised some thorny questions about semantics: If a raincoat is still a coat, and a cell phone is still a phone, why isn't a dwarf planet still a planet?

NASA said Pluto's downgrade would not affect its $700 million New Horizons spacecraft mission, which this year began a 9 1/2-year journey to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets.

But mission head Alan Stern said he was "embarrassed" by Pluto's undoing and predicted that Thursday's vote would not end the debate. Although 2,500 astronomers from 75 nations attended the conference, only about 300 showed up to vote.

"It's a sloppy definition. It's bad science," he said. "It ain't over."

Under the new rules, two of the three objects that came tantalizingly close to planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, has nicknamed "Xena." The third object, Pluto's largest moon, Charon, isn't in line for any special designation.

Brown, whose Xena find rekindled calls for Pluto's demise because it showed it isn't nearly as unique as it once seemed, waxed philosophical.

"Eight is enough," he said, jokingly adding: "I may go down in history as the guy who killed Pluto."

Demoting the icy orb named for the Roman god of the underworld isn't personal - it's just business - said Jack Horkheimer, director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of the PBS show "Star Gazer."

"It's like an amicable divorce," he said. "The legal status has changed but the person really hasn't. It's just single again."

___

AP Science Writers Alicia Chang in Los Angeles and Seth Borenstein in Washington, and correspondents Sue Leeman in London and Mike Schneider in Cape Canaveral, Fla., contributed to this story.

[VisibilityMissing]

I was surprised that the eccentricity of the orbit was what finally did it . . .

This discussion has been going on for a long time, and I'd be surprised if this is the end of it . . . what fun would that be?

[Llewthepoet]

That's such a horrible way for a planet to go! Clyde Tombaugh probably rolling over in his grave!

[Rikirk]

Why does all this seem to me like a bunch of suits with too much time on their hands. First Pluto is a planet...then it isnt. Its been a planet for 80 + years...why strip it of its title? This reminds me of those researchers who get a grant to study something, like a food and then say its bad for you. The 4 years later they get another grant...do exactly the same study then say its good for you. Then they switch it around again.

these people have too much time...and money on their hands.

Sorry, but I channeled the ghost of Lewis Black and I had to rant for a bit. Take this with a grain of salt.

[osprey]

It is now part of the brand new category "Dwarf Planet" (though they prefer to be called Little Planets lol). I guess it makes sense since they found that huge asteroid beyond Pluto that was in orbit as well, the name of which escapes me. Still...seems like too much of a hassle to bother. All star charts and everything related will have to be changed now.

[Tom Flapwell]

I didn't realize that Pluto had been known for less than a century. Turns out that this is the year of Tombaugh's 100th birthday, too. I don't think he'd be too upset; it was still worth discovering.

My physics teacher in 1997-98 told the class that Pluto's orbit prevented it from being a genuine planet, saying that scientists were just trying to keep things simple. He was a weird old man, but they're seeing things his way now.

[Rooster]

"Dwarf Planet" is such a lame name for it. What happened to "Planetoid"?

[Muninn]

The Forgotten Planet

[Tavis]

Yeah, and this totally reverses the positions on Ceres, Charon and Xena made just a few weeks ago... Anyway, these are some confusing times for people learning to count.

[Zaaphod]

Naturally, there's money to be made from this:

Pluto may not be a planet, but it's a hot seller

By Alicia Chang, Associated Press
Mon Aug 28, 7:14 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - Not long after puny Pluto was stripped of its planethood, Janis Robinson started selling $25 "PLUTO IS A PLANET" T-shirts on the Internet.

Robinson, who said she "rolled her eyes" after Pluto got the boot, hopes her buyers will send a message that kicking out the far-out rock is downright goofy. "I'm always going to think of Pluto as a planet," said the 45-year-old from San Jose, Calif., who insists she's not selling shirts on Craigslist for the money. "People who buy this can make a statement that we still believe in Pluto."

Robinson is hardly alone. Scores of Web-savvy sellers hoping to support, and cash in on, Pluto's demotion to a "dwarf planet" bombarded the Internet hawking Pluto memorabilia worthy of a presidential candidate, from T-shirts and mugs to bumper stickers and mouse pads.

The International Astronomical Union shook up the solar system Thursday when it declared that Pluto was no longer part of the cosmic club - the first time the solar system was altered since Pluto was spotted in 1930.

On Cafepress.com, a San Francisco-area Internet company that prints T-shirts and other merchandise, an explosion of Pluto inventory popped up within 24 hours of the news. By Friday, the site featured 200 designs on more than 1,500 products.

Many items and slogans fretted Pluto's demise and pined for the return of the obsolete nine-planet solar system. T-shirts screamed "Save Pluto" and "Stop Planetary Discrimination" while bumper stickers promoted "PLUTO 2006: Running as an Independent Candidate."

Others were more wistful. "Pluto, we hardly knew ye ... 1930-2006" was available in adult and kid's apparel as well as caps and bags.

Los Angeles-based Web programmer Chris Spurgeon designed a bumper sticker on the site featuring a Hubble Space Telescope image and the slogan, "Honk if Pluto is still a planet."

"I'm not burning with anger about the Pluto decision, but it has touched a nerve with a lot of people," said Spurgeon, 51.

On Friday morning, Spurgeon had received 100 orders for his bumper stickers, which cost $4 each. He plans to donate the money to the Planetary Society, a space advocacy group.

Cafepress.com spokesman Marc Cowlin said the Pluto items are "hot" but it's too early to tell how well they will sell. "Pluto is a planet we've known all our lives, and suddenly it's not. People are taken by surprise."

Jennifer Vaughn of the Planetary Society wasn't surprised to see the surge in Pluto merchandise. "The public has certainly supported Pluto as a planet," Vaughn said. "They see it as a bit of a cultural loss."

In 1999, when Pluto's planethood was threatened, a barrage of letters from schoolchildren worldwide prompted the professional astronomers' group to issue a rare public statement affirming Pluto's status. Michael Burstein, who heads the Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet, a grass-roots group formed earlier this year, said he was encouraged by the ruckus.

"If someone is creating 'Save Pluto' T-shirts, more power to them. No one has a monopoly on Pluto," he said.

[Rymn_the_Silver_Wolfe]

"Dwarf Planet" is such a lame name for it. What happened to "Planetoid"?

Indeed, 'dwarf' works best when describing a star not a planet.

If for nothing else I am glad that they've retracted the idea that Ceres was a planet. Ceres isn't even planet shaped - it's big, but not planet shaped.

[Tavis]

All of a sudden, I'm getting this Pluto = Death Star notion: "That can't be a planet. It's too small. It looks more like-- Pluto!" *cue some Empire theme...*

[VisibilityMissing]

So, that's where they've been building it . . .

[Dead Rabbits]

I say good riddence to bad rubbish. Who the Hell likes Pluto anyways. Nobody that matters, thats who.

[Bocaj Claw]

I like Pluto. And in a related piece of news: a survey performed by a third party reveal that a whopping 89.78% of people surveyed believe that I matter.