In August 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) - TopicsExpress



          

In August 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded the status of Pluto to that of dwarf planet. This means that from now on only the rocky worlds of the inner Solar System and the gas giants of the outer system will be designated as planets. The “inner Solar System” is the region of space that is smaller than the radius of Jupiter’s orbit around the sun. It contains the asteroid belt as well as the terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The “gas giants” of course are Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. So now we have eight planets instead of the nine we used to have...... for more-----loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/pluto.html
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 17:57:06 +0000

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