OT: The solar system has 12 planets

[henk brouwer]

capnq said:

Not by the proposed standard, which involves where the objects' barycenter is. If the point the objects orbit around is inside one of them (Earth-Luna), the other is a moon. If the barycenter is outside (Pluto-Charon), both are planets (if they're both round).

That's quite a messy definition... If I recall correctly the barycenter is influenced by the distance between the two objects, not just their mass. By this definition Charon wouldn't have been a planet if it had been in a lower orbit. I can agree with the rest of the proposal but the Charon thing is a bit weird.

edit: just found this link:
http://oklo.org/?p=120#comments
Apperently our moon will magically be promoted into planethood 30 billion years from now if this definition is accepted. (if the solar system is not destroyed before)