If all stars are considered "planets" then why the fuss about the ones scientist just found?

Question

Scientist make it seem like its really something new but in all honesty...we can look at the sky and see planets all the time...maybe not an up close look but still. Why dont they try to show us or tell us something we dont know!

Answer 1

When you look up into the sky and see bright objects, some of them are stars (burning gas) and some of the objects are planets (reflecting light from stars.)

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) may adopt Xena (as the name for UB 313) as it was nicknamed by its discoverer Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology who called it Xena after the warrior princess of TV fame. The 12 planets in our solar system listed in order of their proximity to the sun would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon, and Xena (UB313). Pluto's largest moon, Charon; and the asteroid Ceres would be categorized as planets. Pluto would be categorized as both a planet and a pluton. Both Pluto and Charon each are large enough (massive enough) to be spherical. Both bodies independently satisfy the definition of “planet”. The reason they are called a “double planet” is that their common centre of gravity is a point that is located in free space outside the surface of Pluto.

The new definition of a planet: any round object larger than 800 kilometers (nearly 500 miles) in diameter that orbits the sun and has a mass roughly one-12,000th that of Earth. Moons and asteroids will make the grade if they meet those basic tests.

The growing category of "plutons" - Pluto-like objects that reside in the Kuiper Belt, a mysterious, disc-shaped zone beyond Neptune containing thousands of comets and planetary objects.
Plutons are distinguished from classical planets in that they reside in orbits around the Sun that take longer than 200 years to complete (i.e. they orbit beyond Neptune). Plutons typically have orbits that are highly tilted with respect to the classical planets (technically referred to as a large orbital inclination). Plutons also typically have orbits that are far from being perfectly circular (technically referred to as having a large orbital eccentricity). All of these distinguishing characteristics for plutons are scientifically interesting in that they suggest a different origin from the classical planets.

Answer 2

Stars aren't planets. Stars are suns. Planets orbit suns. That's why they're called "solar systems".

Maybe you should listen to the scientists once in a while. You might learn something new.

Answer 3

Not all "stars" are considered planets. Go and find decent book on astronomy and learn something about the subject. Use the Internet to carry out basic research and bother us no more.

Answer 4

All stars ARE not considered planets. In fact, no star is a planet.

Answer 5

Stars are not planets. They are...well....stars. Even a star circling another star is called a dual star system.

Answer 6

I think you heard someone say that MOONS can sometimes be considered planets. For example, our moon is bigger than pluto, but our moon circles earth and is not independantly circling the sun.

Answer 7

Yes... stars are suns... where did you get the idea that they were planets... *sigh*

Answer 8

its not that they're new planets, the "fuss" is that they're thinking about adding them to out solar system

Answer 9

Not all stars are planets. You're dumb

Answer 10

Dude... you are a real genius!