24 August 2006 Thursday

Poor Pluto

Can we seriously just demote Pluto like that? Pluto’s always been the littlest planet in our solar system. Our solar system. Our littlest planet. We loved it as our littlest, ninth planet. And now we’ve just outgrown its cuteness and decided we don’t need it as a planet anymore :-/

Now where we learned “9 planets and one sun”, kids in school will memorize a few more names when they’re learning the solar system: 8 planets and 3 “dwarf planets” — Ceres, Pluto, and “2003 UB313”/Xena.

I guess it works… Still seems a lil sad though…a lil dwarf planet sad.

BBC: Pluto loses status as a planet
National Geographic: Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule
Washington Post: Pluto Is No Longer a Planet, Astronomers Say