Farewell, Pluto

Pluto was stripped of its status as a planet today when scientists from around the world redefined it as a "dwarf planet", leaving just eight classical planets in the solar system.

The eight are:

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

According to MSNBC, the much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

The report adds that:

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s. Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets”, similar to what long have been termed “minor planets".

Read more here.