Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A new and improved definition for the term 'planet' will soon be proposed that would expand the title beyond the confines of solar ...

The International Astronomical Union defines a planet as a celestial body that orbits the sun, is massive enough that gravity has forced it into a spherical shape, and has cleared away other objects ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A newly proposed mass-based ...

The world’s astronomers, under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), have concluded two years of work defining the difference between “planets” and the smaller “solar system ...

For many people, the definition of a planet was only made clear in 2006, when the spunky world Pluto was demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet. Now, a team of astronomers is pushing for “planet” ...

In our solar system, objects are close enough that we can check the orbit and see if has been cleared of other objects. This is problematic if we can only infer rough properties of what could be a ...

Two years ago the International Astronomical Union (IAU) elected to define the term planet, restricting it to the eight largest bodies orbiting the Sun, and deleting Pluto from the list. The demotion ...