Jun 11, 2008

Pluto is now a Plutoid


The International Astronomical Union has decided that Pluto is officially a "Plutoid".

According to this Yahoo! news report, the official definition is:

"Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit."

I still feel bad for Pluto over this. Just because it is smaller, it has been demoted to "Plutoid." What next, small humans are called "humanoids"?

No comments: