[MikeD]

Yeah, Alan refuses to call Pluto anything but a planet. He wrote a pretty good article a few years back called “Gravity Rules” where he put forward a reasonable definition of planethood.

I have it on good authority that a guy in charge of giving numbers to asteroids started this whole controversy. He got tired of people spotting Pluto and thinking it was an asteroid, then asking him for a number...

[SunkenCiv]

That wouldn't surprise me at all. :')

"To Pluto And Far Beyond" By David H. Levy, Parade, January 15, 2006 -- We don't have a dictionary definition yet that includes all the contingencies. In the wake of the new discovery, however, the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to develop a workable definition of planet. For our part, in consultation with several experienced planetary astronomers, Parade offers this definition: A planet is a body large enough that, when it formed, it condensed under its own gravity to be shaped like a sphere. It orbits a star directly and is not a moon of another planet.