Hello, friends.

It is a momentous day, August 24, 2006. Following a week of heated
debate at the IAU General Assembly in Prague, the results of the
voting during today's closing ceremonies are known.

The designation of Pluto has changed from "planet" to "dwarf
planet," as defined in item 2 of Resolution 5A, below. Pluto is
joined in this designation by Ceres and 2003 UB313. Charon will not
receive this "dwarf planet" designation, remaining simply a
satellite of Pluto. The current solar system planetary count is a
follows: 8 planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune), and 3 dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, and 2003
UB313).

Please note that Pluto did not loose its "planet" designation
because of its size, but because it did not fulfill its "planetary
housekeeping" obligation of clearing out the neighborhood of its
orbit. Since Pluto crosses the orbit of Neptune, it is evident that
Pluto was not able to steak a claim for itself by gobbling up all of
the adjacent matter and become the regional king of the hill, as the
now eight solar system planets were able to do during their
planetary formation.



For a look at the final draft of these resolutions, follow this link:
(http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0602/index.html)

To view the full new release on results of the voting, follow this
link:
(http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0603/index.html)


Below is the text of the related IAU Resolutions 5A and 6A:

I should note that a proposed Resolution 5B recommend that the eight
planets be described as "classical" planet, and proposed Resolution
6B recommended that the new class of Pluto-type bodies be
called "plutonian objects." However, neither of these resolutions
was accepted during this meeting. The matter regarding Resolution 6B
will be considered further by the IAU.


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RESOLUTIONS

Resolution 5A is the principal definition for the IAU usage
of "planet" and related terms.

Resolution 6A creates for IAU usage a new class of objects, for
which Pluto is the prototype. The IAU will set up a process to name
these objects.

IAU Resolution: Definition of a Planet in the Solar System
Contemporary observations are changing our understanding of
planetary systems, and it is important that our nomenclature for
objects reflect our current understanding. This applies, in
particular, to the designation 'planets'. The word 'planet'
originally described 'wanderers' that were known only as moving
lights in the sky. Recent discoveries lead us to create a new
definition, which we can make using currently available scientific
information.

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 "planet"(see footnote 1) 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, and (c) has cleared the
neighborhood around its orbit.

(2) A "dwarf planet" 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(see footnote 2) , (c) has not cleared the
neighborhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.

(3) All other objects(see footnote 3) except satellites orbiting the
Sun shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar-System
Bodies".
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Footnote 1: The eight planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Footnote 2: An IAU process will be established to assign borderline
objects into either dwarf planet and other categories.
Footnote 3: These currently include most of the Solar System
asteroids, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), comets, and other
small bodies.
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IAU Resolution: Pluto

RESOLUTION 6A
The IAU further resolves:

Pluto is a "dwarf planet" by the above definition and is recognized
as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects.

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Clear Skies,
Jimmy Thomas