Planets and Dwarf Planets

Well, it's official! Our solar system now has eight planets and a small handful of dwarf planets [wiki]. The IAU General Assembly 2006 Resolution has thus demoted Pluto [wiki] to dwarf planet status to sit alongside Ceres [wiki] and the yet unnamed 2003 UB₃₁₃.







I'm excited about this bit of news, as it presents an open view of our solar system. I'm slightly disappointed about where the resolution has left Charon [wiki] as a moon of Pluto, even though both Pluto and Charon orbit each other and together orbit the Sun.

I definitely welcome the new "dwarf planet" celestial body type, since the size and mannerisms between these and standard planets are so different. And, as I mentioned in my previous post on this subject, we're still the third planet from the Sun!