For 76 years, the line-up for our solar system has shown us nine planets. Is it now time to render this structure obsolete and increase the number to twelve? The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is to make that very decision come August 24 of this year. While space buffs out there are all gaggling with glee like kids on sugar about this 12-planet proposal, people who make a living out of the 76-year-old, nine-planet structure are ready to take the blow, at whatever cost.

Publishers, planetariums, and schools will have to make revisions to their textbooks, models, and visuals, and these changes will surely be expensive! Planetary mobiles and some science fair projects in classrooms all around the world will now be considered horribly wrong!

Well, despite all these initial concerns, sources say that astronomers, teachers, and students alike will actually be more than excited about making the modifications to their "obsolete" nine-planet structures. Now, all these excitement have spilled over to the toy-makers, as the race to produce the toy-counterparts of the three new members of our solar system - Ceres, Charon, and Xena (still nicknames) - is on the move. Currently, the Discovery Channel Store already predicts that the 12-planet toysets may be out come Christmas!

Well, at the rate things are going, I guess it really is more exciting than it is a hassle that the IAU might approve the 12-planet proposal. I mean, c'mon! Imagine yourself as a kid who just got home from school, and calling out to your mom, "I'll be in my room! Don't bother me until dinner! I'm building a new planet!!!" Besides, I still believe that Xena (Warrior Princess) is one heck of a good name for a planet - especially if Gabrielle, the loyal side-kick, is orbiting around it as a moon.