No Solar Love For Pluto

With the IAU resolving the issue of Pluto's planetary status, (however disappointing their decision was) it seems that the distant world has been reassigned a cold hard number: 134340.

(Space.com) On Sept. 7, the former 9th planet was assigned the asteroid number 134340 by the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the official organization responsible for collecting data about asteroids and comets in our solar system. [...]

Pluto's companion satellites, Charon, Nix and Hydra are considered part of the same system and will not be assigned separate asteroid numbers, said MPC director emeritus Brian Marsden. Instead, they will be called 134340 I, II and III, respectively.

A sad day for the future citizens of this frozen world...or rather minor planet that is. There is a petition out there to save Pluto's planetary status, although the odds of this happening are as good as finding intelligent life on other worlds within our solar system.

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