Pluto's status is on the chopping block

Nearly 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries gathered in Prague Monday to come up with a universal definition of what qualifies as a planet and possibly decide whether Pluto should keep its planet status.

The rest can be read here on cnn.com .

Seanie.

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall in that discussion!

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall in that discussion!

except musca might be for the chop also!, splat and your gone . whats the bets they can't agree on a definition and it stays a planet, it's a bit late now that the cat is out of the bag.

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall in that discussion!

except musca might be for the chop also!, splat and your gone . whats the bets they can't agree on a definition and it stays a planet, it's a bit late now that the cat is out of the bag.

Personally I think they should have the balls to do it right and not leave a stupid fudge.

Time will tell!

Bye bye pluto, it was good knowing you.
Looking forward to seeing you as a KBO in a when the skies clear. :lol:

The discovery of the large KBOs last year has really forced the IAU's hand on this. They've been endlessly debating this for years - I was at the IAU General Assembly back in 2000, and there was a full debate on Pluto's status back then, with no resolution, obviously. What was interesting, though, was that all the 'Pluto is a planet' proponents were American, while everyone backing the opposite view weren't!

The general feeling was the Americans were blocking reclassification purely on nationalistic grounds - Pluto was discovered after all by an American who was a mentor to a lot of American planetary scientists. This current proposal is a classic fudge - let's see how it works, at least it keeps our American friends happy :lol: