Isn't it possible that the only reason we think of Pluto as a planet is because, when it was discovered, astronomers said it was one? If they had said "Oh, we found this giant crazy asteroid flying around past Neptune" but didn't call it a planet, I think we'd probably only think of there being eight planets today (without this recent conference).

It will take me a while to get used to there only being eight planets, but then it's still taking me a while to get used to the fact that it isn't the 1990s anymore (a fact that I'm sure I've brought up every single day in RinkChat since January 1, 2000). I've always thought of myself as easily adaptable but I guess it isn't true.

-Eric "Pardon the total incoherency of this post; it's two in the morning and I'm very sleepy" Sleator