You're Plutoning Me On!

Geez! Was it only yesterday that I blogged on the weighty matter of whether Pluto should lose its designation as a planet? Seems like it was light years ago.

Anyhow, an international group of astronomers meeting in Prague has come up with a compromise worthy of a bunch of politicians in a smoke-filled room:

Pluto still would be a member of the planetary array, but would be called a "pluton," a new subcatagory of small objects in the outer solar system that would be distinct from the eight larger planets closer to the sun.

Three other orbs also would be promoted to pluton status, meaning that there now would be 12 something or others in the solar system.

More here.