In the news you've probably heard that the definition of a planet may change and as a result more planets may be added to our solar system. This article describes the change and the issues involved. When I had heard that there was some unrest and controversey around this proposal, I figured it had to do with the general public not being able to deal with the idea that the "inventory of planets would soar". Imagine having hundreds of new planets added to our Solar System.

Well I was wrong, at least according to what is reported in the article. It looks like the controversey has more to do with scientists not being able to agree on a resolution to re-classify planets and the system used to introduce new planets into the Solar System. Well, that I can understand.

At first I wanted to rant about the general public caring about how many planets are in our Solar System, because who really cares? So you grew up knowing there were nine planets. Tomorrow there will be 24. Oh darn.

I'm curious to read articles on the public's reaction to this. I'm also curious to see if this will follow through in the scientific community. Ultimately it won't really affect anyone's life here on earth, other than astronomers. It'd be interesting to see what teachers would use for 3D/moving Solar System models in classrooms though as the number of planets increases :)