If you’re like yours truly, you must have been dejected by the 2006 announcement that Pluto is no longer formally recognized as a planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). I’ve previously interviewed experts and made, in my humble opinion, a strong case for why this was a bad take. But here’s something that most people may not be aware of. Besides the remaining eight ‘classical’ planets, there are five other so-called dwarf planets: Pluto, Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. If you consider satellites (or moons) as planets — and many astronomers stand by this definition — there ough…
