PRAGUE, Aug 24, 2006 (AFP) - Suspense was deeper than a black hole Thursday as the world's top astronomers prepared to announce whether lonely, little Pluto -- ninth rock from the Sun -- would be ejected from the planetary A-list. "We have to accept that the universe changed because the knowledge we have of it evolves".
Text of resolutions at astronomy conference
PRAGUE, Aug 24, 2006 (AFP) - The following
resolutions, to be put before the International Astronomical Union (IAU)
Thursday, seek to define what is a planet in the solar system:
"RESOLUTION 5A
The IAU therefore resolves that planets and other bodies in our Solar
System be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:
(1) A planet1 is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun,
(b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body
forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round)
shape,
