Forgot everything you ever knew about the number of planets there are in our Solar System!
Three more planets might be added by next week if plans by the International Astronomy Union (IAU) are approved in Prague during their general meeting. (Source: The Guardian - Pluto survives as solar system acquires three more planets).
If the plan succeeds, librarians and schoolchildren will need to know that the ‘new’ solar system will consist of 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 (Pluto, its moon Charon, Ceres and Xena). The actual sequence in terms of distance from the Sun is as follows: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, Charon, and Xena.
But that’s not all. There are another 12 candidate planets on the IAU list that might be upgraded to planet status in the future. So, our Solar System suddenly has more planets that we had learnt all our lives. I pity the children as they have to memorize more names when they are tested on the Solar System. 
Links to other news sources: - IAU : Press Release - NASA : Cosmic Debate: What’s Up With the Planets?
Technorati Tags: iau, planets, plutons, nasa, solar system
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