Pluto... What happened?

Well, guys: it's official. Pluto's no longer a planet. The IAU (International Astronomical Union) [iau.org] voted in the past couple weeks to demote it to a "dwarf planet;" I like to use the term planetoid, but that's just me. There are a couple other planetoids that they are now looking at as well. One of these, before known as 2003 UB313, is now to be known as Eris[slashdot.org]. Also, there are a lot of other objects flying around in space that can be classified as planetoids, that exist in an astronomical formation known as the Kuiper Belt[nytimes.com].

In physics, we had just finished talking about the different types of measurements, and how they are important to our society. In this case, since Pluto, Eris, and the other strings of planetoids that exist in the Kuiper Belt were too small by definition, they were all brought down into the status of "dwarf planet."

Personally, I think it's going to be hard for teachers the most. How many times can you remember one of your elementary school teachers telling you some form of mnemonic so you can remember the 10 planets? What are they going to do now, when there's only nine? Will the children of tomorrow suffer from a lessened education?

I doubt it. It still makes a fun argument though.