Article: New world order: astronomers boot Pluto out of the family of planets.(Cover story)

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- No intelligent space creatures live on the dim and icy surface of Pluto. That's a good thing, because if they did, they would be shattered by recent news from far-off Earth. On August 24, at the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague, the world's top astronomers voted to demote Pluto, kicking it out of the family of planets in our solar system. The astronomers voted to adopt a new classification system for objects orbiting the sun. First in the system are the eight classical planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Next comes a new, distinct class of "dwarf planets." The ...

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