8, 9, 10, 23, 39, 53....

You would almost think that the government was involved in this, but scientists of the International Astronomical Union are gathering to finally define what a planet is:

For decades, the solar system has consisted of nine planets, even as scientists debated whether Pluto really belonged. Then the recent discovery of an object larger and farther away than Pluto threatened to throw this slice of the cosmos into chaos.

Among the possibilities at the 12-day meeting of the International Astronomical Union in the Czech Republic capital: Subtract Pluto or christen one more planet, and possibly dozens more.

But the decision won't be an easy one. Scientists attending the conference are split over whether Pluto should be excluded from the list of planets.

The numbers in the title are some of the possible number of planets that could be in our solar system depending on what the definition of planet turns out to be. But it's about time that somebody decided what 2003 UB₃₁₃, Quaorar, Sedna, and the Kuiper Belt and other Trans-Neptunian Objects really are defined as.

These IAU folks move with all of the deliberate speed of a federal bureaucracy...