Everyone has heard the news today that Pluto is no longer a planet. However, that’s actually not true. The truth is that they have changed the definition of “what is a planet.” In other words, it’s not that the perception of Pluto has changed; it’s that the perception of the scientific community of what constitutes a planet has changed. And this was codified today by a vote of the International Astronomical Union.

According to reports, the new definition of “planet” adopted this week by the International Astronomical Union states that a planet “has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

So Pluto is not a planet. But my neighbor is.