This is how a planet ends.
Photo: The International Astronomical Union/Lars Holm Nielsen
The elephants were gathered on the savannah a respectful distance from Nellie, the matriarch. She had to break some bad news to one of the herd. Nellie looked down with her big regretful eyes at the somewhat smaller member of the herd standing in front of her. “There’s no easy way of telling you this.You were adopted,” she said to the tiny creature. “In fact you might not even be an elephant. We think you’re an ant.”
The vote of the IAU has been announced. The press are saying it’s a turn around from the position they took on Sunday, but it’s not. Before there were going to be eight classical planets and Pluto as a planet. Now there eight planets and Pluto as a dwarf planet. Quite simply “One of these things is not like the others…”
It’s not the first time that astronomers have changed their mind about something being a planet. The difference is that this time round the ejected planet has come away with quite an honour.
It helps if you know what a planet is – which is where the fuss started.
#1 by Ioannis on 24th of August, 2006 - 9:44 pm
I feel sorry about poor Pluto…
Now, I only hope that the newly discovered planet,2003 UB313, will not be called “Xena”! *S*