Decades of debate, often heated, have come to a close with the International Astronomical Union voting to re-classify the planet Pluto as a 'Dwarf Planet', effectively reducing our solar system to eight classic planets. The new classifications will make the asteroid Ceres and the new object nicknamed 'Xena' dwarf planets as well. Other icy bodies that orbit our sun such as comets will now be classified as 'small solar system bodies'. Understandably, the controversy is still ongoing, and the debate may still rage on for years. For now though, all the science textbooks may have been rendered obsolete.

Image Credit: NASA

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