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pluton

pluton
 n.— «If the ideas are approved at the general meeting of the IAU in Prague next week, schoolchildren will, in future, have to learn that the solar system has 12 planets: eight classical ones that dominate the system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus—and four in a new category called plutons. These are Pluto, its moon Charon, a spherical asteroid that sits between Mars and Jupiter called Ceres, and an object called 2003 UB313 but nicknamed Xena by American astronomers who found it.» —“Pluto survives as solar system acquires three more planets” by Alok Jha Guardian (United Kingdom) Aug. 16, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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Further reading

Midnight Oil (episode #1644)

What exactly is a planet? Controversy over this question led to Pluto’s redefinition, along with a brand-new English word. And: Some people now use the phrase all the things! to mean and whatnot or you know what I mean. This new sense of all...

Pluto’s Planetary Fate? Not Great

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union kicked Pluto off its planetary pedestal. In his delightful book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming (Bookshop|Amazon) astronomer Mike Brown recounts the events leading up to the demotion of that...

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