poor pluto
Leading astronomers declare that Pluto is no longer a planet, shrinking the solar system from nine planets to eight.
Pluto was discovered in 1930. It lost its planetary status when the International Astronomical Union approved a definition for planets that Pluto fails to meet.
[[ Pluto is mostly brown. The above picture captures the true colors of Pluto as well as the highest surface resolution so far recovered. No spacecraft has yet visited this most distant planet in our Solar System. Pluto's brown color is thought dominated by frozen methane deposits metamorphosed by faint but energetic sunlight. The dark band below Pluto's equator is seen to have rather complex coloring, however, indicating that some unknown mechanisms may have affected Pluto's surface. ]]
Pluto will now belong to a new category of "dwarf planets," similar to what long have been termed "minor planets."
The New Horizons spacecraft, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 19, 2006, is expected to become the first spacecraft from Earth to fly by Pluto on July 14, 2015 (9 1/2 years!). The probe will allow scientists to better understand the distant body.
...WHAT THE HELL?!