Everybody is blogging about this very subject, and perhaps the IAU conference is where Jett Loe has been loitering, and I am quite certain that the gang from The Playaz Ball were lurking amongst the scientist.

Discovered in 1930, Pluto has traditionally been considered the ninth planet, and furthest from the sun, in the solar system.

However, the definition of a planet approved after a heated debate among some 2,500 scientists from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) meeting in Prague drew a clear distinction between Pluto and the other eight planets.

The scientists agreed that to be called a planet, a celestial body must be in orbit around a star while not itself being a star.

It also must be large enough in mass for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape and have cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

Pluto was disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

The new definition -- the first time the IAU has tried to define scientifically what a planet is -- means a second category called "dwarf planets", has been created, as well as a third category for all other objects, except satellites, known as small solar system bodies.

The need to define what it takes to be a planet was driven by technological advances that enable astronomers to look further into space and to measure more precisely the size of celestial bodies in our solar system.

From now on, traditional planets will be restricted to eight: Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Venus, Mars and Uranus.