Preface: this distinction prevailed until august 2006, when the international astronomical union (iau), prompted by pressure from the professional community of planetary scientists as well as from the general public, brought pluto's planethood to a vote at a triennial general assembly in prague, czech republic. the result? pluto was formally downgraded from "planet" to "dwarf planet," thereby to diffuse the negative attention that we had been receiving for six years running. neil degrasse tyson, the pluto files interview: over the years, people started realizing that maybe that kind of makes sense, and six years later, the international astronomical union, they took a vote, and basically they said pluto should be reclassified. so we were, in the end, kind of vindicated. neil degrasse tyson, interview by melissa block, "astrophysicist chronicles battle over pluto" which excerpt from tyson's