Are we soon to expand our solar sytem to include more planets?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313 ?
Ceres orbits in teh asteroid belt, Charon was a moon of Pluto but now Pluto and Charon are two planets (or plutons) orbiting each other. 2003 UB313 (provisional name – thank goodness!) is one further out even than pluto, but thought to be much bigger.
Any suggestions for 2003 UB313 – your comments / suggestions welcome.
See also: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060816082231.htm and http://www.iau.org/
#flag: space, planets
Answer: No!
In fact our solar system has shrunk. (Figuratively that is – it can’t really change of course, only how we define it)
So Pluto has now been reclassed as a dwarf planet but gets the impressive “Double dwarf planet” title with its companion Charon.