At a meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague in 2006, Pluto was determined not to be a planet, but rather the largest member of the Kuiper belt of icy objects. Let's examine some facts. Here is a table of the 9 sun-orbiting objects formerly known as planets:

a) Plot the Length of the year against the Distance from the sun. Describe the shape of your plot.
b) Re-express one or both variables to straighten the plot. Use the re-expressed data to create a model describing the length of a planet's year based on its distance from the sun.
c) Comment on how well your model fits the data.

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Position Distance from Sun Length of Year Planet Number (million miles) (Earth years) Mercury Venus Earth Mars lupiter Saturn Uranus 7 Neptune8 Pluto 024 0.61 67 1.00 1.88 11.86 29.46 84.07 164.82 247.68 142 887 1784 2796 3707