Clay the Rambling Homeschooling Dad

Pluto No Longer a Planet!

Wow! Everything I'd been taught about the solar system is wrong! Everything I taught my kids about the solar system is wrong!

abc13.com: News from KTRK, around the world

Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

Here's my favorite quote:

"It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called 'planet' under which the dwarf planets exist," she [Conference Leader Jocelyn Bell Burnell] said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella.

Look closely: That's Ms. Burnell holding Pluto

Or this one from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Pluto was shafted by the world's astronomers today...

OK - so there are various mnemonic devices to remember the name of the planets. My favorite, that Ms. Vezain taught me in the fourth grade in Princeton, Illinois, was "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles". Now, it doesn't make sense to end it with "Nine" (unless you're a whacked-out Star Trek fan), so I decided to change it to "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Newts".

Well, anyway - throw out your astronomy textbooks. Or don't. My wife is wagering that they'll add it back in 20 years...

posted by ClayMan @ 9:45 AM