Pluto is no longer the farthest planet from the sun. And I am not referring to the period between 1979 to 1999 when Pluto’s eccentric orbit brought it closer to the sun than Neptune (which won’t happen again until 2226).

No, this is different. They have, so they claim, discovered a tenth planet.

The planet (photos here) is at least as large as Pluto and may be 50% bigger. It orbits the sun 9 billion miles out, three times farther out than Pluto, though its orbit is just as eccentric as Pluto’s–at closest approach, the new planet would be only a little farther out than Pluto is at its farthest. It takes 560 years to orbit the sun, as opposed to Pluto’s 248 years. It revolves around the sun at a 44-degree angle relative to the ecliptic plane which most planets inhabit (Pluto is the other exception, at 17.5 degrees off the ecliptic).

A name for the new planet has been submitted (but not made public), which is good because the present name of “2003UB313” would be hard to pronounce. It might be named “Xena,” in recognition of (a) the TV warrior princess, and (b) how geeky these guys are.

Of course, there is a question of whether it’s even a planet or not, as scientists are in disagreement that even Pluto is a planet; the eccentricity and deviance from the ecliptic could identify these bodies as captured objects, which wandered into the solar system from the outside and got captured in the sun’s gravitational pull.

But seeing them as planets is way more fun.