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Old 08-16-2006
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The IAU draft definition of "planet" and "plutons"

From: http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.ia...1_release.html
Quote:
The IAU draft definition of "planet" and "plutons"

16. August 2006, Prague

The world's astronomers, under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), have concluded two years of work defining the difference between "planets" and the smaller "solar system bodies" such as comets and asteroids. If the definition is approved by the astronomers gathered 14-25 August 2006 at the IAU General Assembly in Prague, our Solar System will include 12 planets, with more to come: eight classical planets that dominate the system, three planets in a new and growing category of "plutons" - Pluto-like objects - and Ceres. Pluto remains a planet and is the prototype for the new category of "plutons."
This was a bit of a surprise for me. Even tho I had been in favor of keeping Pluto a planet, I fully expected that it would suffer a full demotion.

So now we have Plutons, or probably will have after the vote, eh? It will be interesting to see how the public reacts to all this!
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