The Ever Changing Solar System

Yes, when I learned about the solar system, Pluto was a planet. 

In fact, the stuffed solar system we have only offers the nine planets.

Sizes and Distances are DEFINITELY Not to Scale!!!

We are going to be moving, so I'm clearing out some things. The solar system is one of them. Of course just as soon as I offered it to a friend, mija decided it was her most favorite science thing to play with. I decided to let her play with it until we actually hand it over. It has given us a chance for some science review.

We reviewed the traditional "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" which stand for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

But now that's out of date!

Pluto is now considered a "dwarf" planet. AND in case you didn't know, they have discovered two more dwarf planets.

Ceres is between Mars and Jupiter.
Eris is past Pluto.

Thankfully, National Geographic had a contest to come up with a new mnemonic for the ever changing solar system.

"My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants."

That's right. It's Aladdin time.

That would be eight planets and three dwarf planets.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris.

Do you have any memory devices you use for the solar system or astronomy in general?