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Astronomers say Pluto is not a planet



PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.



After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is â?? and isn't â?? a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.


Although astronomers applauded after the vote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell â?? a specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings â?? urged those who might be "quite disappointed" to look on the bright side.



"It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called 'planet' under which the dwarf planets exist," she said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella.



The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.



For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.



Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "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 has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."



Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.



Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets." The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun â?? "small solar system bodies," a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.



It was unclear how Pluto's demotion might affect the mission of


NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a 9 1/2-year journey to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets.



The decision at a conference of 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries was a dramatic shift from just a week ago, when the group's leaders floated a proposal that would have reaffirmed Pluto's planetary status and made planets of its largest moon and two other objects.



That plan proved highly unpopular, splitting astronomers into factions and triggering days of sometimes combative debate that led to Pluto's undoing.



Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, has nicknamed "Xena."



Charon, the largest of Pluto's three moons, is no longer under consideration for any special designation.



Brown was pleased by the decision. He had argued that Pluto and similar bodies didn't deserve planet status, saying that would "take the magic out of the solar system."



"UB313 is the largest dwarf planet. That's kind of cool," he said.

The article seems to neglect  Sedna! Wasn't she discovered and brought up to planetary status only several months ago?

Pluto=Planet in my books.

Kurzick Version:
1.  Quest:
[attachmentid=714]
Note: You can see where you are supposed to go in my map there. If you don't recognize the area, it's just west of Beetletun.
2.  Kurzick Settlement:
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Of course Daddy's not so kind to his daughter. He gets all mad and says that if she doesn't dump him, he'll hunt them down and kill them both because he'll never vote for a peace treaty.

And ever the Luxon, I do better with the Luxon Verstion:
1.  Quest:
[attachmentid=716]
2.  Examples of the Luxon's colorful architecture:
[attachmentid=717]
3.  A chunk of Jade Sea with fishies frozen in it, which I'm assuming the Luxons worship since they brought it along, but I don't recall one in the Kurzick camp.
[attachmentid=718]
Note: You can see where it is on my map here too, but if you don't recognize the area, it's just south of the Ascalon Settlement and in the BAD BIRDY field.
4.  Pack-Turtles are so Photogenic:
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