# Chateau de la Tobler

## Friday, August 25, 2006

### Oh, the shame of it all

I am here to post a disturbing piece of news that I read only this morning but apperently happened yesterday, that is why it is in todays paper and not yesterdays paper. Pluto, the lovable planet way, way, way out there is no longer a planet. It will now be known as a dwarf planet along with 2 other similar sized "rocks" that are out there by Pluto. Our solar system now, officially has only 8 "planets." The reason Pluto did not make the cut is that the International Astronomy Union requires planets to "clear the neighborhood around its orbit." This got rid of Pluto since it overlaps Neptune and, given the two, Neptune would be the official planet. So please inform your children that we no longer have 9 planets in the solar system, we have 8 with 3 dwarf planets. Who knows, this might now be the end of Pluto as a planet.
Just to let you know, the other 2 dwarf planets are named Ceres and 2003 UB313 (nicknamed "Xena" by founder Michael Brown from the California Institute of Technology). To let you know, Xena is actually larger then Pluto and that may have started the debate that Pluto is not as unique as it once was thought to be.

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