2,500 Astronomers meeting in the Czech capital Prague for the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) general assembly have voted to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.
The scientists rejected a proposal that would have retained Pluto as a planet and brought three other objects into the cosmic club.
Pluto has been considered a planet since its discovery in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh. The ninth planet will now effectively be airbrushed out of school and university textbooks.
The eight official planets are now Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
The initial proposal put before the IAU to raise the number of planets in the Solar System to 12 – adding the asteroid Ceres, Pluto’s “moon” Charon and the distant object known as 2003 UB313 – was met with opposition.
Poor, poor old Pluto…
After 76 years of being a planet, it suddenly gets demoted and becomes just another sad lonely rock floating in space…
I don’t know why this somehow saddens me, it’s like losing a distant relative you’ve always wanted to get to know better, but never got the chance to…
But no worries Pluto, I don’t care what those stupid astronomers say, you’ll always be a planet in my eyes.
We should start a campaign and fight for Pluto’s rights as a planet till the very end!
Who knows what planet will be demoted next… What if it’s Earth??
I don’t want to end up living on some meaningless dumb rock…
I’m sure you don’t too…
Long live Pluto…
I thought it was a joke, where will this all end?
Pluto is no longer to be a planet, couldn’t they thought of that earlier??
Yeah, I feel the same way. I kinda’ feel sad that my children will never know Pluto as a planet. It’s a little weird to me. hehe
I wonder why it took them this long to decide that it’s not a planet but rather a “dumb rock” as you say…