Now the Astrologists are Screwed!

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) have just finished two years worth of work which has been dedicated to defining the difference between 'plants' and 'smaller solar system bodies' (IAU Website: News). Now the fact that scientists took two year to debate the difference is not my concern. Most astronomers I are too high in the clouds to be of any use to normal society, and who can understand them anyway. Even if their discoveries are brilliant and they have some sort of grasp on the sheer amazingness of the universe, how can they simply tell us now that what we have been learning for the last 75 year since Pluto was discovered is now horribly wrong!

It now seems, according to the IAU that we have in fact 12 planets in our solar system. School kids who learnt that there where 9 last week are now disillusioned! As far as i can see, this new defining has come about only because when Pluto's so-called 'moon' Charon was discovered to be larger than Pluto, the Astronomers had to do some soul searching. What are these bodies that now find themselves on a par with Earth and Jupiter? The first one is 'Ceres' which until this new definition was an asteroid. Take a look at the picture below from Hubble.

NASA, ESA, J. Parker (Southwest Research Institute), P. Thomas (Cornell University), and L. McFadden (University of Maryland, College Park)

Doesn't look like much, but it has enough gravity, under the new definition, to make it round enough for it to be a 'planet'. It is located between Mars and Jupiter and as far as we can tell, is dead boring! The second body that has been elevated to planet status is Pluto's moon, Charon. Although it orbits Pluto, it is allowed to be a planet for the same reason as Ceres. Look below for both Pluto and Charon in orbit.

NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team

Lastly, the lovely named 'Kuiper Belt Object 2003 UB313'. We are assured that a proper name for this planet will follow soon, lets just hope its sounds better than it looks...

NASA, ESA, and M. Brown (California Institute of Technology)

So there we have it! Now here is the kicker... What are all the Astrologists going to do? No longer will just Uranus be rising in your Taurus, but Kuiper Belt Object 2003 UB313 will be blocking your sun energy causing you to have luck in love. Or something to that effect. This only goes to show what bollocks Astrologists spout about how the 'heavens are aligning to your energy fields' etc.... Just when they thought they had everything maped out on their funny star chats, now they have to juggle 3 extra planets!