Demotion of Pluto as a planet

[William Rex Marshall]

From: "Gene Smith" <genewardsmith at gmail.com>

> > From: cino hilliard <hillcino368 at hotmail.com>
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > The celestial object we call Pluto was demoted from its planet status
> > today.
> 
> 
> If you read the so-called "definition" of a dwarf planet, it's not clear. As
> best I can tell, Jupiter is now a dwarf planet (because of the Trojan
> asteroids) and probably Pluto (because of the plutinos.) But Xena is a
> full-fledged planet!

Not according to the IAU: http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0603/index.html

See also Phil Plait's comments on the Bad Astronomy Blog: http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/08/24/breaking-news-pluto-not-a-planet/

Further criticism of the IAU's attempted definitions: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5283956.stm