Pluto No Longer A Planet

[Jeid]

Plutowned (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html)

I'd never heard of UB313/Xena or Charon before either.

[Kingetter]

Plutowned (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/index.html)

I'd never heard of UB313/Xena or Charon before either.

I think Charon was named from - http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/charon.html

[Rheghead]

I feel sorry for Clyde W. Tombaugh (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tom0bio-1)'s family. To have his achievement of discovery demoted like this by committee is a bit rich imho.:(

But that is progress I suppose?

[DrSzin]

Clyde Tombaugh is on his way to Pluto, but he'll be none-the-wiser when he gets there:
The ashes of the man who spotted Pluto are hurtling through space, their destination the icy rock he discovered as the ninth planet in 1930. When the funereal space craft left earth, it was heading to a full planet. By the time it arrives, if ever, it will land on a dwarf version, following the downgrading of Pluto yesterday. American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto while working at an observatory in Arizona, and immediately sparked a long-running celestial debate over what status it should be afforded.And his widow doesn't seem too unhappy about its "demotion" to a dwarf planet:
However, according to Mr Tombaugh's widow, he would not be bitter at the new definition robbing his discovery of its 76-year planetary status. Patricia Tombaugh, 94, said her husband, as a good scientist, would understand the decision of the 2500 delegates of the International Astronomical Union general assembly in Prague yesterday. "He said (when he discovered it), 'Well, it's there. You can do what you want with it'," she said. On the IAU decision, she added: "Clyde would have said science is a progressive thing and if you are going to be a scientist and put your neck out, you are apt to have it bitten upon."Excerpted from a story in yesterday's Herald (http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/68773.html).

[Tiger Jones]

Does this mean it will be less expensive to buy a home there now?

Or does it simply mean there will be less red tape when it comes to demolishing it to make way for the Earth bypass?

[Dreadnought]

Ah well, I always thought Pluto was a bit of a Mickey Mouse planet anyway...