Pluto's deserved demotion
Pluto was demoted to the status of dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union's assembly in Prague last week. While Pluto meets two of the three qualifications of a planet (it orbits the sun and is large enough to have a round shape) it fails to clear the other objects from its orbit. The vote has been met with controversy, in no small portion due to the fact that only the 424 astronomers that remained in Prague for the concluding day of the conference voted on the demotion. Mike Brown, the discoverer of newly categorized dwarf planet UB313 (quite a name), said that he "may go down in history as the guy who killed Pluto" (BBC, Aug. 25).

