Terra incognita refer to the hypothesized continent Terra Australis Incognita ("The unknown land of the South"), as seen in the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum map by Abraham Ortelius (1570). During the 19th century "terra incognita" disappeared from maps of the earth, since both the coastlines and the inner parts of the continents had been fully explored. But the bottoms of the seas remain mostly un-mapped, as do many other land surfaces in the solar system. The phrase is now also used metaphorically by various researchers to describe any unexplored subject or field of research. For more history of the terms, see Terra Australis,
IAU definition of planet IAU definition of planet The International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined in August 2006 that, in the Solar System, a planet is a celestial body which: Among other things, this definition caused Pluto to no longer be a planet, a change from how it had been widely considered until that point. A non-satellite body fulfilling only the first two of these criteria (such as Pluto) is classified as a "dwarf planet". According to the IAU, "planets and dwarf planets are two distinct classes of objects". A non-satellite body fulfilling only the first criterion is termed a "small Solar System body" (SSSB).