Leading astronomers declared on Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is — and isn’t — a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have laboured since Copernicus without one. Although astronomers applauded after the vote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell — a specialist in neutron stars from Northern Ireland who oversaw the proceedings — urged those who might be "quite disappointed" to look on the bright side.

"It could be argued that we are creating an umbrella called ‘planet’ under which the dwarf planets exist," she said, drawing laughter by waving a stuffed Pluto of Walt Disney fame beneath a real umbrella. "Many more Plutos wait to be discovered," added Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club. For now, membership will be restricted to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit." Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s. Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets", similar to what long have been termed "minor planets". The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun — "small solar system bodies", a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites. Experts said there could be dozens of dwarf planets catalogued across the solar system in the next few years.

It was unclear how Pluto’s demotion might affect the mission of Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a nine-year journey n Turn to Page 2 to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets. The decision at a conference of 2,500 astronomers from 75 countries was a dramatic shift from just a week ago, when the group’s leaders floated a proposal that would have reaffirmed Pluto’s planetary status and made planets of its largest moon and two other objects.

That plan proved highly unpopular, splitting astronomers into factions and triggering days of sometimes combative debate that led to Pluto’s undoing. In the end, only about 300 astronomers cast ballots.

Now, two of the objects that at one point were cruising toward possible full-fledged planethood will join Pluto as dwarfs: the asteroid Ceres, which was a planet in the 1800s before it got demoted, and 2003 UB313, an icy object slightly larger than Pluto whose discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, has nicknamed Xena. Charon, the largest of Pluto’s three moons, is no longer under consideration for any special designation. Brown, who watched the proceedings from Cal Tech, took Thursday’s vote in stride — even though his discovery won’t be christened a planet. "UB313 is the largest dwarf planet. That’s kind of cool," he said. (AP)

VSNL on Thursday announced a reduction of 40 per cent in the Internet-leased lines (ILL) and 25 per cent in the international private leased circuits (IPLC) effective from September 1.

Tata Group company, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), on Thursday announced that it plans to invest $600 billion to build two new submarine cable systems, one between India and Europe and the other between Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. The India-Europe cable would also provide connectivity to the Gulf region.

This investment is part of the Rs 1.2-lakh crore investment that the Tata Group has planned to invest in the next three to five years. Mr Kishor Chaukar, Tata group nominee on the VSNL Board, said that investments would be in auto, telecommunications, steel, chemicals and power. "These are the areas in which we believe the companies can contribute value for money for its customers and investors across the sectors," Mr Chaukar said.

He added that Thursday’s announcements reflect the progress VSNL has made in four years "from being a monopoly to emerging as a highly competitive force in the global telecom space. The management has very clearly tried to respond to the vision set out by Mr Ratan Tata when he took over as chairman of VSNL after disinvestment." VSNL’s reduction in the prices of IPLC and ILL will meet the rapidly growing demand of several Indian companies investing overseas.

These products are offered in India using VSNL’s global network that spans over 200,000 route kms with 275 PoPs connecting 200 countries. Mr N. Srinath, executive director, VSNL said that the market for international Internet bandwidth is expected to expand as the reduced prices will encourage demand from new customer segments like the small and medium enterprises, smaller ISPs and academic institutions.

Mr Srinath said that the India-Europe cable system is likely to be completed by 2008 with the build cost of approximately $350 million and the intra-Asia cable system is likely to be completed by 2007 with an investment of around $250 million. These are the fastest-growing regions in the world.

According to Mr Srinath, the company is looking for partners for making the investment and the talks are in process with international carriers in the US and Europe. He said that some of the companies in West Asia are showing interest in the partnership, but nothing is finalised yet.