RED SHIFT..hmm..RED ALERT: We just lost a PLANET!!!

The Milky Way has officially lost a planet. That’s right –
somehow 2,500 expert astronomers managed to lose Pluto (maybe it’s hiding in a
black hole…). Ok – actually,
International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) general assembly just voted Pluto off
the island. It’s still hanging around doing it’s thing, but it is no longer a
planet. (Maybe Pluto is lost after all…I mean, it does take a couple hundred
years to make a circle)

"The eight planets are Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune," said the IAU resolution. The
resolution goes on to define a ‘planet’ as “a celestial body must be in orbit
around a star while not itself being a star. It also must be large enough in
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 now a “dwarf planet”, along with UB313 (hanging out
past Pluto) and Ceres (who likes the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter).

Today, history has once again proven mightier then the sword
(imagine trying turn Pluto into a dwarf with a sword…not a good image).

[@more@]