news of outer space...

SPACE.com -- Large 'Planet X' May Lurk Beyond Pluto:

An icy, unknown world might lurk in the distant reaches of our solar system beyond the orbit of Pluto, according to a new computer model.

The hidden world -- thought to be much bigger than Pluto based on the model -- could explain unusual features of the Kuiper Belt, a region of space beyond Neptune littered with icy and rocky bodies. Its existence would satisfy the long-held hopes and hypotheses for a "Planet X" envisioned by scientists and sci-fi buffs alike.

"Although the search for a distant planet in the solar system is old, it is far from over," said study team member Patryk Lykawka of Kobe University in Japan.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Pluto's Identity Crisis Hits Classrooms and Bookstores | LiveScience:

NEW YORK — Pluto was once a planet. Then, a dwarf planet. And as of last week, a plutoid. The fall from grace has teachers, parents and educational publishers struggling to keep up, while kids remain loyal to their favorite, the ninth planet. Underscore planet.

Last week, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced Pluto should now be called a "plutoid," two years after the organization voted to demote Pluto to "dwarf planet" status.

Meanwhile, many kids are nearly certain Pluto is still a planet.

"I think it's a planet. But me and my friends, we talk about it sometimes and we go back and forth," said Natalie Browning, 9, sitting in a park in Manhattan with her family. "Right now, I'm not 100 percent. I'm just 75 percent" sure that Pluto is a planet.

Natalie's mom, Bobbie Browning, said, "You've got kids with textbooks saying that Pluto is part of the solar system and a planet, and teachers have to say it isn't [a planet]."

Really, it should be good that kids are being exposed to a REAL controversy, in definition and interpretation of data, in science, as my generation was 30-40 years ago when continental drift shifted from "some guy's crazy idea" to "the real deal" thanks to some interesting magnetic data coming from the floor of the Atlantic.

But tragically, it'll lead to the wrong effect: as long as kids get used to getting seemingly contradictory information (really a case of old data vs new), they'll remain open to "alternative" things in science classes (in a post-modernist sense) and that actually makes them more vulnerable to pseudo-science from ignorant teachers and school boards.