Pluto takes a hit..
Astronomers today voted to create the first scientific definition of the word “planet”, and Pluto did not make the cut.
In a redefinition of our solar system agreed at a conference of 2,500 astronomers in the Czech capital, Prague, the dinky and remote Pluto was classified as a “dwarf planet”.
Under the new guidelines, agreed after a week of sometimes passionate debate, to qualify as a planet a celestial body must have “cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit”.
The new rules for a planet state: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit”.
All I can really say is; about time.