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Article: Pluto's fate.
- Article from:
- Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)
- Article date:
- August 8, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Chicago Tribune. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Aug. 8--School kids for 75 years have been taught that our solar system has nine planets--Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Before Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, they had been taught there were only eight. Now the lesson plan will have to be revised again.
The big question is whether the number of planets will be revised up or down. Pluto's fate hangs in the balance.
Astronomers have announced the discovery of an object orbiting the sun that is larger than Pluto. A team led by Mike Brown, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, says the object's path around the sun is ...