My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us N...

If you haven't heard by now, you're in for a shock: they are only EIGHT, not nine, planets in our solar system.

This past Thurday, the International Astronomical Union (or at least 424 of their number), decided that Pluto was in fact, not a planet. The criteria for planet has been redefined so that numerous celestial bodies recently discovered would not have no to be included as planets simply because they met or exceeded Pluto in size.

Now, while it may seem an easy enough thing to define for the new millennium what constitutes a planet (at least within our solar system), it was not so easily
defined by the Union.

A lot of scientists, most notably Dr. Alan Stern, NASA's lead scientist for a robotic mission to Pluto, have argued that the definitions barring celestial bodies that haven't absorbed debris in their orbit ("clearing the local neighborhood") excludes Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and even Earth from being called planets. Personally, I like the guy from Uruguay's idea.

But even though the Union's simplified the solar system for future categorizing of far-out objects, it's seriously hurt one large group of people: astronomy students.

I thank God I finished my astronomy classes last year, because this would have been a frustration of Charlie Brown proportions.

Now to come up with a new mnemonic device. Who's up for nachos?