My good friend Jill informed me today that our beloved planet Pluto was downgraded to a 'dwarf planet' by the International Astronomical Union. It is the end of an era. An era without a definition of 'planet.' Yes, that's right, your grade school textbooks lied. I know you thought you knew what a planet was. I mean, there had to be a definition somewhere in that book. This was after all, science class. But no matter what your book said, the powers that be (like the IAU) never actually defined a planet until Thursday. And even then, they had to create a subcategory for poor Pluto.
And the sad part about this whole story is not really about Pluto at all. It's about that fact that both Jill and I (and Jill is one of those fabulously brilliant minds who will be running the free world someday) could not remember the order of the rest of the planets. I mean, who really knows that mess past Mars -- except that it ends with PLUTO?? For a brief moment, I was delighted to think that the solar system would now end in Uranus, because yes, I am that immature. (It's actually Neptune, the Forgotten Planet.)
And now the solar system as I believed it to be no longer exists. :(
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