It was in 2006, in Prague, when the plot went down.

The conspirators timed their plan well.

They waited until the last day of the assembly, when most of the voting members had left for home.

They snuck in a draft

document without sharing it with the people they knew would vote against it. In a rush, they called

for a vote and made sure that they would have the numbers to support it. Stunned and surprised,

nobody could sound the alarm in time. Within a blink, the motion carried, the vote succeeded, and the conspirators would claim their prize.

This was no mere coup d'etat.

This was no overthrow of a government or secret installation of a dictatorship.

No, this was far more serious, much more far-reaching of much greater importance than some earthly power struggle.

It was the new definition of a planet, one that would demote Pluto from the ranks of the planets of the solar system.

You see, the conspirators were astronomers, and the assembly was a regular meeting of the International Astronomical Union.

In Prague?

Well, Prague was Prague.

We're not exactly sure what happened on that fateful August day in 2006.

Well, we know what happened.

Everyone agrees on the general outline.

There was the IAU International Astronomical Union meeting, and they vote on all sorts of things.

The general astronomical community looks to this group as the one to name things and define things.

So when the IAU decides something, it's generally viewed as the

consensus will of the astronomical community. And so this is what we end up putting in papers,

in grant proposals. This is what filters through textbooks. They vote on stuff all the time.

...