Pluto's Bad Year Continues
The 2005 discovery of a solar system object larger than Pluto was a crushing uppercut to the cold world's planetary status. But it's the official weigh-in, reported tomorrow in
Science, that scores the technical knockout. Researchers have calculated that the newfound world, Eris, is significantly more massive than its fellow ice giant, closing the chapter on Pluto's fall from king of the Kuiper belt to lowly dwarf planet.