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It seems we only have eight planets in the Solar system now after Pluto was deemed not to be a planet at the IAU (International Astronomical Union) meeting in Prague.
The researchers said Pluto, which was discovered in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh, failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets and will now be referred to as a "dwarf planet".
The need for a strict definition was deemed necessary after new telescope technologies began to reveal far-off objects that rivalled Pluto in size.
Without a new nomenclature, these discoveries raised the prospect that textbooks could soon be talking about 50 or more planets in the Solar System.
Amid dramatic scenes in the Czech capital which saw astronomers waving yellow ballot papers in the air, the IAU voted to block this possibility - and in the process took the historic decision to relegate Pluto.
The scientists agreed that for a celestial body to qualify as a planet:
it must be in orbit around the Sun
it must be large enough that it takes on a nearly round shape
it has cleared its orbit of other objects
Pluto was automatically disqualified because its highly elliptical orbit overlaps with that of Neptune. It will now join a new category of dwarf planets.
Story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5282440.stm
The researchers said Pluto, which was discovered in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh, failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets and will now be referred to as a "dwarf planet".
The need for a strict definition was deemed necessary after new telescope technologies began to reveal far-off objects that rivalled Pluto in size.
Without a new nomenclature, these discoveries raised the prospect that textbooks could soon be talking about 50 or more planets in the Solar System.
Amid dramatic scenes in the Czech capital which saw astronomers waving yellow ballot papers in the air, the IAU voted to block this possibility - and in the process took the historic decision to relegate Pluto.
The scientists agreed that for a celestial body to qualify as a planet:
it must be in orbit around the Sun
it must be large enough that it takes on a nearly round shape
it has cleared its orbit of other objects
Pluto was automatically disqualified because its highly elliptical orbit overlaps with that of Neptune. It will now join a new category of dwarf planets.
Story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5282440.stm
