Recently, one of our staff writers urged a "grassroots" movement to save Pluto, which was recently stripped of its planetary status.  For those of you who agree that Pluto should remain a planet, here's some good news.

It seems as if the the astronomical  community is not about to let Pluto go down without a fight. 300 researchers recently signed a statement denouncing the IAU's recent definition demoting the ninth rock from the sun. A conference is planned next year where they hope to come up with an alternative definition of "planet." Alan Stern, who heads the New Horizons Mission to Pluto at NASA is helping to organize the conference.

"Teachers are writing me saying, 'We don't know how to teach this,'" Stern says. "We've got to help them out of this jam that the IAU has put them in," says Stern.

Another organizer, Owen Gingerich of Harvard University, believes Pluto's planet label could stick despite the IAU decision if most textbook authors choose to use it. "If the conference is broadly enough representative with the key players, then it may well be that it establishes a different nomenclature than what has been officially voted on by the IAU," he told New Scientist. "It might achieve a more satisfactory consensus," Gingerich says.