One of my friends emailed today, and was rather indignant that one of her planets was getting taken away. I suppose ending the anbiguity about Pluto is a good thing, precision is an engineer’s second best friend after all. But there’s something to be said for tradition, too.
The new standard still bothers me, though. I mean, if we’re ever going to be able to chart the galaxy, we need clear standards. And “sweeping the lane” is not precise at all. Oh well, they’re only astronomers after all, not engineers.