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August 15, 2006

Pluto May Not Be A Planet

The farthest planet from the Earth, Pluto, is under attack from astronomers and may be demoted as a planet.

3,000 astronomers and scientists from around the world will meet in Prague this week to discuss this very topic. They need to decide if Pluto, which was discovered in 1930, is actually a planet by definition.

"The pivotal question is the status of Pluto, which is clearly very different from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune,"

Owen Gingerich, professor of Astronomy and History of Science emeritus a the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told Reuters.

Such a change would cause quite a stir as millions of text books would be outdated and the curriculum for teaching the solar system would have to be drastically changed.


Source : RevolutionPortal
About Pluto : Wiki , NinePlanets

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