From the CNET article “Textbook publishers grapple with Pluto demotion”:

Such fundamental changes to what kids are taught don’t happen very often. It’s like dropping Australia off the list of continents. Wikipedia got the change right away. So did other Internet resources. Now try correcting the millions of science textbooks, standardized tests, films and even solar system models that will be used in a classroom this fall.

From the ABC article “Pluto becomes one less planet to memorize”:

Pluto’s lost status disappointed some schoolchildren and had space museum curators scrambling but in the words of one teenager, “It’s one less planet to memorize.”

From the CNET article “Pluto: And then there were eight”:

Three other bodies had been contending for planetary status as well: Ceres, the largest-known asteroid; “Xena,” the nickname for 2003 UB313; and Charon, which has been considered Pluto’s moon.

Ceres and “Xena” will now share “dwarf planet” status with Pluto. Charon, it has been concluded, will be grouped with “small solar-system bodies.”

From an Los Angeles Times article titled “Pluto Learns Eight Is Enough for Planets”:

Members of the International Astronomical Union overwhelmingly voted to demote Pluto to a “dwarf planet.” Though still retaining the term planet, it was clear that Pluto had been exiled.

“Pluto’s out,” said Michael E. Brown, the Caltech astronomer whose discovery last year of a planet-like object called UB313 reignited the long-running debate over whether Pluto should be considered a planet. “People are going to be unhappy, but it’s the right thing to do. This is a great moment in science.”

[...]

“Poor little Pluto,” said Patricia Tombaugh, the 93-year-old widow of the man who discovered Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh. “Kids are going to be upset.”

From an Associated Press article on Yahoo News titled “Widow of Pluto’s discoverer ‘shook up’”:

The widow of the astronomer who discovered Pluto 76 years ago said Thursday she was frustrated by the decision to strip it of its planetary status, but she added that Clyde Tombaugh would have understood.

“I’m not heartbroken. I’m just shook up,” Patricia Tombaugh, 93, said in a telephone interview from her home in Las Cruces.

[...]

Tombaugh had fought off other attempts to relegate Pluto, but his widow said this time he probably would have endorsed the change, now that other planetary objects have been discovered in the Kuiper Belt, the belt of comets on the edge of the solar system where Pluto resides.

[...]

[Jim Murphy of the New Mexico State University] said the declaration won’t change Pluto’s importance to science.

“Pluto didn’t cease to exist,” Murphy said. “It didn’t lose or gain any atoms. Its physical characteristics haven’t changed a bit because of this.”

From a CNET article:

The 2006 International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly voted Thursday in Prague that Pluto, formerly known as a planet, will now be considered a “dwarf planet.”

The eight planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will be grouped as “classical planets.”

Continue at source

Hello, this is Mission Specialist Number 2 Steve Robinson from the Space Shuttle Discovery. We’re high in orbit on our last day of orbit. Tomorrow we come home. I’m currently talking to you just off the southeast tip of Indonesia in the daylight and moving on towards night. It’s been a fantastic mission up here, absolutely amazing. Some of the hardest work that any of us have ever done. We haven’t had a whole lot of sleep, and we’ve been extremely busy and really happy.

Although this is pretty cool, I’m not sure if this qualifies as a podcast because I can’t find an RSS feed anywhere. Oh well.

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter’s gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That’s pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.

I was getting all excited until I read this article and realized the email was a hoax.

The circulating emails are simply exaggerations. Yes, Mars will be rather close to Earth, but it’s going to happen in October, not August; it’s not going to be as big as the full moon; and it will not be 60,000 years before it happens again.

Sigh… I’ll need to be more careful about what emails I believe. I’m not used to this kind of email hoax; I’m only used to hoax emails that announce, “THIS [important system] FILE IS A VIRUS! REMOVE IT NOW OR YOUR COMPUTER WILL FACE UTTER DESTRUCTION!”

See what the astronauts saw on July 20, 1969. Try Google Moon.

If you follow the link to moon.google.com, you’ll get a version of Google Maps that shows satellite imagery from the moon, along with information about the various lunar landings. Also check out the Google Moon FAQ, where they mention their G.C.H.E.E.S.E. research center that was announced on April Fool’s Day of 2004.

And when you’re looking at the Google Moon maps, just remember – don’t zoom in too close.