San Francisco Chronicle  Pluto demoted -- from 9th planet to
just a dwarf Astronomers vote in Prague, setting rules to
determine status of bodies in solar system  David Perlman,
Chronicle Science Editor  Friday, August 25, 2006   Pluto is no
longer the ninth planet in our solar system. It's only a
"dwarf."  Its fate was determined Thursday by the world's
astronomers, who for the first time created a set of rules
defining just what a planet is -- and what it is not.  Pluto got
the shaft.  That leaves the solar system with its original eight
planets and countless other objects that now must be called
"small solar system bodies."  The historic vote by the
International Astronomical Union in Prague ended more than two
years of controversy that started after California Institute of
Technology astronomer Mike Brown announced that his team had
discovered a 10th planet orbiting the sun, and astronomers began
puzzling over just how to define it.  It also reversed a week-
old recommendation by a high-level committee of