MVEMJSUNP or MVEMCJSUNPE

What??? Well, MVEMJSUNP is known to many of us as My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas or My Very Eager Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Pins. Remember those mnemonics from elementary school to help remember the correct order of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto? Well now we have a new one thanks to the addition of two planets, Ceres and Eris (aka 2003 UB313), to our solar system. Say what? Well, it turns out they've always been there, but were recently voted in as planets - dwarf planets actually. But thanks to a little girl's winning mnemonic we can win the million dollars on "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?", the famed Fox show. (Well maybe not so famous but hosted by a bit more famous Jeff Foxworthy.) To help us all remember the order MVEMCJSUNPE we now have My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants. Ridiculous! We now get: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris. This is according to National Geographic, who hosted the competition the young lady won.

But, wait! Based on the published findings of IAU (International Astronomical Union) in 2006, our solar system really only has 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They also found that there are 3 dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. To avoid confusing our children perhaps we should just learn MVEMJSUN. The new mnemonic could go something like: My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Noodles. Sorry kids, Pluto is now just a dwarf planet. With only 3 in that category, you are better off just memorizing Ceres, Pluto, and Eris as opposed to a silly mnemonic. Oh and in 2009, when the IAU reconvenes, we may yet learn of new confusion. For now, we can say that we have somewhere between 8 and 11 planets. Feel free to pick the ones you like most, everyone else does.