The Marginilization of Planet Pluto

For some reason, I'm really irritated that Pluto is not considered a planet anymore. All through my public schooling I was taught that the planets were (closest from the Sun) Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars...asteroid belt...Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Anyhow, the powers that be in the wild world of science have all of a sudden decreed that Pluto is no longer a planet...and really ticks me off. I'm not sure why though...it's just unsettling. Who decides that Pluto is no longer a planet? Who has that kind of power? I'm still going to consider Pluto a planet regardless.

This decision has far-reaching implications. Did you know that elements (remember the Periodic table?) 92, 93, and 94 are named uranium, neptunium, and plutonium respectively?

So why was Pluto said not to be a planet?

Well, apparently, the IAU has three main conditions to meet in order for a piece of rock to be called a planet:

1. The object must be in orbit around the Sun (check)
2. The object must be large enough to be a sphere by its own gravitational force. It's own gravity should be strong pull it into a sphere. (Hydrostatic equilibrium) (check)
3. The object must "clear the neighborhood" around its orbit. (Houston, we have a problem).

Apparently, Pluto is a little slow (not that there's anything wrong with that) at clearing its neighborhood

Alan Stern has stated that this new definition of a 'planet' would also exclude Mars, Jupiter, Neptune...and Earth.

Astronomer Mike Brown said, "through this whole crazy circus-like procedure, somehow the right answer was stumbled on. It’s been a long time coming. Science is self-correcting eventually, even when strong emotions are involved."

Well I'm glad that science eventually self-corrects itself. Maybe it'll self-correct itself on more important issues in the future.