We Have Twelve Planets In Our Solar System
The international conference in Prague is likely to vote for this definition of a planet:
A planet, they decreed, is any star-orbiting object so large that its own gravity pulls in its rough edges, producing a near-perfect sphere.
So, Pluto remains a planet, but we get three new inductees to the club:
- Ceres, currently the largest asteroid, is one.
- 2003 UB313, dubbed “Xena” by its discoverer, would be another.
- Charon, considered a moon, is inducted because its mass is so similar to Pluto's that they orbit the sun as a double planet, rather than as a planet dominating a much smaller moon.
Start coming up with a mnemonic:
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Ceres
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
- Pluto
- Charon
- Xena
Update: Most Voluptuous Earth Mothers Can't Just Stay Under Ninety Pounds, Can't Xena?
8/29 Update: I should have updated this entry earlier. They voted the other way. Pluto is now a dwarf planet, a second-class citizen of the solar system, along with the others that should have been destined for greatness.
Josh Poulson
Posted Tuesday, Aug 15 2006 09:28 PM
![[Feed]](/oslo/feed_blue_32.png){kind=small}
