Do we have 9 or 10 planets now? What are teachers teaching about new planets?
375309
Right now there are officially 9 planets. Depending on what we decide in the next year or so that number will change to 8, stay 9, go to 10, or even larger.  \n\nAn object larger than Pluto (2003 UB313) has been found, but we have not granted it official status as a planet. Don't expect this issue to be resolved any time soon, we've more or less "tabled" the issue until our general meeting in August, but there are a number of scientists in the IAU's Division of Planetary Sciences discussing this issue.\n\nRight now the newer astronomy textbooks generally have a section on "the planet controversy," and spend some time talking about all these newly discovered icy bodies.  They are all part of the Kuiper Belt, just like Pluto, and new books seem to be grabbing onto teaching about these objects much like the asteroids, addressing them as the left-overs of the formation of the solar system.  The Cosmic Perspective (a fairly decent intro astro textbook) for example has a chapter on "Remnants of Rock and Ice: Asteroids, Comets and Pluto"
343980
Well, really, we don't actually have a scientific definition of a planet.  Shocking yes.  Embarrassing even more so.  But we are working on it.  The problem we are facing right now is that we have a large collection of "transition objects" out there, things that sit right on the border of "planet or not."\n\nAt the high mass end, it is pretty clear cut, Things that produce internal energy by fusion are stars, things that don't are planets.  The transition between star and planet thus seems to be at about 12 times the mass of Jupiter.\n\nAt the small end things are muddled because of Pluto.  No good definition of planet exists that keeps only 9 planets.  You can make a definition to include Pluto, but then you must include a lot more objects.  This is where we actually focusing on right now.\n\n"gravitationally round" is thrown around a lot.  My professional opinion is that this one one make the cut.  It seems nice, a planet is a planet because it has enough self-gravity to crush itself into a round shape.  The problem with this definition is that it means we would have about 100 planets in out solar system.  The largest asteroid, Ceres is round, as are most of the icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt.\n\nThe one that seems to be picking up steam is "dynamically dominant."  This basically means that a planet "dominates" the space around them.  Take a look at the area around the earth - nothing else similar to it.  Same with Venus, Jupiter, and the rest. (moons and rings are bound to the planet so they don't count).  Ceres (the largest asteroid) is surrounded by many, many other asteroids.  Same goes for Pluto, it is surrounded by many other icy bodies of similar size (including one that is bigger than it).  This definition leaves us with 8 planets.\n\nReally right now the "planets" are just defined by fiat, they are planets because we call them that and nothing more.  As a planetary scientist I feel a little guilty not being able to actually define one of the words in the name of my field, as such I've honestly been spending far more time working on this whole "planet" mess, than on my own research.
35874
In our Solar System, there are eight official planets, nine if you count Pluto (whose status is being debated).  \n\nAs for the rest of the universe, it is difficult to say, but it is reasonable to assume that planet formation from leftover stellar material is relatively common.  Astronomers usually detect large gaseous planets (like Jupiter) by the slight wobble of the star's motion due to the gravity of the planet, so currently it is almost impossible to detect small planets.\n\nAs of November 2005, there were 164 confirmed extrasolar planets.
782617
The better question is what about the planets they found farther out in the galaxy than Pluto.  Why don't we know their names, and why aren't they taught in schools?\n\nThey can take away our little Pluto, but not give us any new planets in return? Boo!
537406
in our solar system: 9\n\neven though larger bodies exist in our solar system, we're too used to having 9 planets to ever change.
1174488
No one knows.\n\nScientists keep discovering large round things going around the sun (which is one definition of a planet).  Up until a few years ago, the pretty much accepted answer was 9:\n\n Mercury\n Venus\n Earth\n Mars\n Jupiter\n Saturn\n Uranus\n Neptune\n  and Pluto.\n\nBut in 2003 astronomers Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz discovered another planet-sized body, WAY out beyond Pluto.  The official name of this 'planet' for now is just 2003UB313, which is an astronomical code for keeping track of new objects.  The astronomers submitted the discovery to the International Astronomical Union (IAU).  The IAU will not only pick a name for this new body, but they will also determine if it will be officially called a planet.  \n\n Since UB313 is bigger than Pluto, there is actually a chance that, if the IAU decides UB313 is not a planet, then Pluto will not be called a planet either.  By discovering a new 'planet,' we may have decreased the number of planets in our solar system from 9 to 8!\n\n But that's not the end of the story.  Mike Brown and the gang keep discovering other big things out there that could possibly be called planets.  Their web site (see the link below) lists three other large objects they have found that might someday be called planets.\n\n And THAT's not the end of the story, either. That's just our solar system.  Scientists are discovering planets that go around other stars quite often.  The second web site below is NASA's place for information about these extrasolar planets. As of 15 June there were 193 of them!
1064407
Well... they are still finding as time goes on... If you are really intersted in the planets.. look at this first one which is OUR system(solar) only... the second one is beyond.. both VERY interesting:\n\nhttp://www.solarviews.com/eng/solarsys.htm\n\nskyandtelescope.com/observing\n\nhubblesite.org\n\nHope you can find some answers... at any rates, the three above sites are GREAT !!
361769
Sol (our solar system) consists of 9 planets, over 140 moons (to date) and several small cosmic objects (comets and asteroids).\n\nMercury (0 moons)\nVenus (0 moons)\nEarth (1 moon)\nMars (2 moons)\nJupiter (63 moons as of 2004)\nSaturn (34 moons)\nUranus (21 named moons, 6 unnamed moons)\nNeptune (8 named moons, 5 unnamed moons)\nPluto (1 moon)\n\nThere have been discoveries of more "planetary objects" beyond Pluto, but they have not been declared to be planets in the same sense as the others.
852535
yes of course it matters to me .it belonged to our solar system for so long and now the scientists have thrown it away because it does not satisfy their definition of planets???\nit is very disheartening to say that our family now consists of 8 planets only.
5355
No one knows.\n\nThere are about 10 planets in our solar system, depending on whom you ask.\n\nAround 100 planets have been detected in other solar systems.\n\nThere are at least 200 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy (ours).\n\nIf the average number of planets per star is 10, then there are 2000 billion or 2 trillion planets in our galaxy.\n\nNo one knows how many billion galaxies are in the Universe.
307741
Right now there are officially 9.  Depending on what we decide in the next year or so that number will change to 8, stay 9, go to 10, or even larger.  An object larger than Pluto has been found, but we have not granted it official status as a planet.  Don't expect this issue to be resolved any time soon, we've more or less "tabled" the issue until our general meeting in August.
902786
Imagine how hard it is to try to teach High Schoolers anything about the planets when one of them has a name like this! But anyway, go to NASA's website. There is a place there where you can find anything worth seeing at any location. It will even tell you when stuff like the Space Station will fly overhead. And most telescopes come with locating software if you ever get that involved. I hope you will. It seems like we never learn much about space, but it has taken a long time to get as far as we are now.
633816
Sun, mercury, venus, earth, mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, pluto.\n\nThis is second grade stuff.
65145
The newest planet is Sedna. It could be the 10th planet on our solar system.
14964
Nine in our solar system - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
556954
there are nine planets in the solar system. it is not know yet how many planets are there in the entire universe, because we just know about 3 galaxies (and still do not know about any planets in galaxies other than the milky way)
57851
There are new planets being discovered all the time, but I assume you mean the new tenth planet in our solar system. \n\nThe discoverer has suggested the name Xena, after the television show. The official name is not due out for some time, and has to be decided by an international committee.