Pluto loses status as a planet

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. Astronomers have voted to strip Pluto of its status as a planet. About 2,500 scientists meeting in Prague have adopted historic new guidelines that see the small, distant world demoted to a secondary category.The researchers said Pluto failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets.The International Astronomical Union's (IAU) decision means textbooks will now have to describe a Solar System with just eight major planetary bodies.

Source: BBC News