Shreveport.com - 8 Planets or 12 Planets?

O.k. So Columbus didn't discover America.
What goes UP doesn't have to come down.
and there's only 8 Planets :cool:

http://www.spacedaily.com/images/sol...montage-bg.jpg

Planetary Line Up Reduced To Four Rocky Worlds And Four Gas Giants: Pluto Out

A quote from same article:

Quote:

Here's how it all shakes out. The International Astronomical Union has decided that, to be called a planet, an object must have three traits. It must orbit the sun, be massive enough that its own gravity pulls it into a nearly round shape, and be dominant enough to clear away objects in its neighborhood.

To be admitted to the dwarf planet category, an object must have only two of those traits -- it must orbit the sun and have a nearly round shape. And no, moons don't count as dwarf planets. In addition to Pluto, Ceres and 2003 UB313, the astronomical union has a dozen potential "dwarf planets" on its watchlist.

What's to become of the other objects in our solar system neighborhood, the ones that are not planets, not dwarf planets and not moons? The organization has decided that most asteroids, comets and other small objects will be called "small solar-system bodies."