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The debate over Pluto’s planetary status has been ongoing since its reclassification as a “dwarf planet” in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Recent discussions and new scientific ...

PRAGUE, Czech Republic ” For decades, it’s been confused with a cartoon dog and ridiculed as a puny poser. Now Pluto, the solar system’s consummate cling-on, has suffered its worst humiliation: It’s ...

Eight years after being reduced to a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, our far distant cousin is finally getting some real push to be upgraded back to the ninth "planet" ...

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Many Americans grew up with this as the definitive planetary lineup and created clever mnemonic devices to memorize them in ...

Shakespeare’s Juliet was being decidedly unscientific when she proclaimed, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” In science, classifications – the ...

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, the first planet discovered since Neptune in 1846. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet, based on three criteria ...

We discovered something: Pluto was different! Pluto was discovered because Neptune’s orbit showed an anomaly that indicated that there was something else out there. So they looked and eventually Clyde ...

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have observed a white dwarf - a highly compact stellar ember - that appears to ...

You know what a planet is, right? A big round thing that orbits a star. Uh, not so fast. You know what a planet is, right? A big round thing that orbits a star. Uh, not so fast. The surprisingly ...