You may have been familiar with the normal rundown that you learned in kindergarten: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. However, I learned at http://mit.edu/ today that we now have 12 planets. Now you need to add Ceres between Mars and Jupiter, Charon goes along with Pluto, and past that is 2003 UB313. How they came up with that last one, I do not know.

Apparently, these new planets came about due to a new classification developed by the International Astronomical Union. This panel, made up of seven people, spent two years defining what is a planet and what is a “solar system body” which are small than planets. Now, to be considered a planet you have to meet two conditions. First, the object must be in orbit around a star, while not being a star itself. Second, the object must be massive enough for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape.

So, for all those of you that are aspiring to become a planet, now you know.See the full story here>>

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