There's been a surprising amount of interest in this story and I for one and very interested in changes to our understanding of our Solar system. Regardless of whether you think it's an outrage, a necessary alteration or you frankly couldn't give a monkey's nuts on a hairdryer, you can't deny the fact that it's sparked people's interest and created a debate and that's always good.
You see the discovery of Eris and her moon Dysnomia (named after the Greek Goddess of discord and her daughter the spirit of lawlessness) and their positioning further away from the Sun than Pluto, has meant that the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has had to reasess it's method of classification. Eris is larger than Pluto by anything between 70 - 700km and so a new classification of 'dwarf planets' has been introduced with includes Eris, Pluto and Ceres the largest asteroid in our Solar System in orbit between Mars & Jupiter.
Here's a handy diagram.
Exciting huh?
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