Bye Bye Pluto...:(

To ensure that kids who keep up on astronomical news don't think the planetarium is behind the times, Pluto is no longer part of one move-it-yourself display at the Irene W. Pennington Planetarium. The button that made it move around the replica sun is disabled. With school gearing up and field trips on the way, director Jon Elvert said, staffers have been busy reworking exhibits to fit an international group of astronomers' decision that Pluto isn't a planet, after all.

Rather, the International Astronomical Union decided, it's a dwarf planet, one of a number of rocky thingummies in the Kuiper Belt at the solar system's edge. Pluto was discovered in 1930, the year Mickey Mouse's dog _ then unnamed _ made his debut. Disney archivists to assume the dog took the name of the planet then dominating the news. In the end, many factors did it in, including Pluto's unusual orbit, which passes inside Neptune's orbit for 20 years, and the fact that its moon, Charon, is so large that the two bodies orbit around a common center of gravity.It will be several more years until students in East Baton Rouge Parish schools receive new textbooks telling them that Pluto no longer is classified as a planet. Instead, educators will rely on newspaper articles, scientific journals and other means to bring students up to date. The planetarium hopes to become a resource for educators wanting to explain to students the recent decision to demote Pluto from regular planet status.

Elvert said his immediate response is to change all references to Pluto from "planet" to "dwarf planet." The main exhibit room, called the solar system gallery, already has been modified. In the outer planet exhibit, a panel with text about Pluto has been removed. Its place is empty, though Elvert said he wants to include a panel with information about dwarf planets. A board with historical information about how planets received their names may remain. That board says Pluto was named for the Roman god of the underworld. A ceiling exhibit, called an orrery, contains models of all the planets and the time it takes them to orbit the sun. That exhibit still has Pluto and its orbit of 249 Earth years. In the planet tower, a staircase that leads to the planetarium, all nine planets are displayed hanging from the ceiling, showing their size in relation to Earth. Elvert said he believes the planetarium will add other "golf-ball size" objects to the collection near Pluto, to represent other dwarf planets.

Four-year-old Haley Hiriri visited the planetarium last week with her grandparents, Louis and Margaret Meade. Louis Meade of Bernardsville, N.J., said he had heard of the change in Pluto's classification, but did not think it would affect too many people.While some astronomers and planetarium staff members have refused to accept the new ruling, Elvert said he sees a great opportunity to teach people how science works."The solar system is still forming. It's still evolving," Elvert said. "Science is an evolving, learning process.""It would be kind of dull if it was all finite, laid out, black and white," he said.Elvert said he hopes the new buzz will cause children and adults to become interested in how planets are discovered.And, he noted, two other objects will join Pluto as dwarf planets: the asteroid Ceres, which was considered a planet in the 1800s, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto and nicknamed Xena."Pluto is still Pluto, but it will be part of another classification of planets," Elvert said.