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by blink182lover4life on March 8th, 2007

blink182lover4life

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What was the point of pluto not being a planet in our solar system?

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Answers. 6 helpful answers below.

  • by Brew Guy wishes he was icefishing... on March 8th, 2007

    Brew Guy wishes he was icefishing...

    As far as I'm concerned it still is!

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  • by Chris on June 22nd, 2008

    Chris

    The debate came to a head in 2006 with an IAU resolution that created an official definition for the term "planet". According to this resolution, there are three main conditions for an object to be considered a 'planet':

    1. The object must be in orbit around the Sun.
    2. The object must be massive enough to be a sphere by its own gravitational force. More specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape of hydrostatic equilibrium.
    3. It must have cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.[96][97]

    Pluto fails to meet the third condition, since its mass was only 0.07 times that of the mass of the other objects in its orbit (Earth's mass, by contrast, is 1.7 million times the remaining mass in its own orbit).[98][99] The IAU further resolved that Pluto be classified in the simultaneously created dwarf planet category, and that it act as the prototype for the plutoid category of trans-Neptunian objects, in which it would be separately, but concurrently, classified.[100]

    On September 13, 2006, the IAU included Pluto, Eris, and the Eridian moon Dysnomia in their Minor Planet Catalogue, giving them the official minor planet designations "(134340) Pluto", "(136199) Eris", and "(136199) Eris I Dysnomia".[101] If Pluto had been given a minor planet name upon its discovery, the number would have been a little over a thousand rather than over 100,000. The first minor planet to be found after Pluto was 1164 Kobolda, a month later.

    There has been some resistance within the astronomical community toward the reclassification.[102][103][104] Alan Stern, principal investigator with NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, has publicly derided the IAU resolution, stating that "the definition stinks, for technical reasons."[105] Stern's current contention is that by the terms of the new definition Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune, all of which share their orbits with asteroids, would be excluded.[106] His other claim is that because less than five percent of astronomers voted for it, the decision was not representative of the entire astronomical community.[106] Marc W. Buie of the Lowell observatory has voiced his opinion on the new definition on his website and is one of the petitioners against the definition.[107] Others have supported the IAU. Mike Brown, the astronomer who discovered Eris, said "through this whole crazy circus-like procedure, somehow the right answer was stumbled on. It’s been a long time coming. Science is self-correcting eventually, even when strong emotions are involved."[108]
    *
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto

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  • by Anonymous on March 8th, 2007

    Anonymous

    I thought it was a moon of Neptune. (by its orbit)

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  • by DavidHume on March 8th, 2007

    DavidHume

    It turned out to be just one of a large group of very tiny bodies orbiting in the same region of space, so it was a choice between going back to 8 planets or accepting that there would be hundreds, with more being discovered all the time. It was wise to go for 8. It is just nomenclature; Pluto is still just as interesting as it ever was.

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  • by Anonymous on March 8th, 2007

    Anonymous

    It was too little, and extremely far away from our solar system and the farthest from the sun.

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  • by Shine_The_Light on March 8th, 2007

    Shine_The_Light

    To be fair when they found it hundreds of years ago they were like wow a planet, before all the redefining rubbish, so if they had found the other planets then (the ones which havent really got names yet), then we would have many more planets

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