Pop Culture Saturday: This Isn't Your Daddy's Solar System

Pop Culture Saturday is intended to be a more light-hearted look at American culture. There's much more going on in America than the darkness of Liberalism.

Remember that test in Science class where one of the questions required you to list the nine planets of the solar system in order (beginning with Mercury and ending with Pluto)? Well, you might need to forget most of what you learned in that Science class regarding planets. The International Astronomical Union (the organization that determines what IS and what IS NOT a planet) is in the process of redefining planetary requirements. The resolution will be discussed and voted on this week most likely.

The IAU is a collective braintrust of 2,500 astronomers from 75 nations who are meeting in Prague this week to hammer out a universal definition of a planet. Primarily, the resolution will either reaffirm or deny the status of Pluto as a planet. Also up for consideration in the resolution is the status of a few other heavenly bodies. If the resolution is approved, the 12 planets in our solar system would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon, and UB313 (currently nicknamed Xena).

Until recently, Charon has been listed as Pluto's largest moon. It is now graduating into full planet status. Ceres has long been considered an asteroid, although it was a planet in the 1800s before it was demoted. Due to its flip-flop nature, some are calling Ceres the John Kerry of heavenly bodies. Couldn't resist!! I should send that one-liner to Jay Leno. The IAU also has a watchlist of at least a dozen other potential candidates that could become planets as astronomers learn more. "We don't want an American version, a European version, and a Japanese version of what constitutes a planet," said IAU president Ronald Ekers.

Other portions of the resolution would add a new category of planets called plutons, referring to Pluto-like objects that reside in the Kuiper Belt (a mysterious zone beyond Neptune containing thousands of planetary objects). Pluto, Charon, and UB313 would be plutons. The resolution would also toss the term minor planets in favor of the much longer phrase small solar system bodies. This galactic shift would force publishers to update encyclopedias and school textbooks. Science teachers would also have to replace the solar system mobiles hanging in their classrooms. Well, as long as they don't have anything better to do...