Is it true that Earth is no longer considered a planet?

Answer 1

I disagree that the asker is having a joke at our expense. I answered another of her questions recently and she was genuinely appreciative of the amount of information I imparted in a very long and detailed answer, on the basis of which I would say she appears to have great curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, which is exactly what this site should be encouraging,

I take the tone of the question to be "they can't seriously be considering doing this, can they? That can't be right, can it? What possible grounds would they have?"

And my answer has to be "I cannot think of any! Yes, it does seem preposterous, doesn't it?"

It looks to me like the rumour machine is jumbling planets up, I answered a question earlier where the asker had picked up the Mars Hoax (it will appear "as big as our Moon") but had heard it applied to Jupiter, Then a bit later someone else asked "how big would Jupiter look if it were as near as Mars was to us in 2003?" (I made it "8% of the size of the moon")

So there is obviously something circulating, if more than one person picks up on it, And I will make an educated guess that something is similarly circulating which substitutes Earth for Pluto in the planet reclassification debate amd it won't be long before more, simlar questions start appearing,

We seem to be awash with disinformation on this site designed to undermine rational thinking and scientific facts, It is a sort of pollution as I see it.

If it's not the Christians pushing Creationism in the Astronomy and Space pages and substituting dogma for knowledge, then its the Astrology enthusiasts who don;t know the difference between Astrology and Astronomy and substituting superstition for knowledge,

Then we have the conspiracy theorists who doubt the lunar landings took place, the pseudo-science buffs who will believe every UFO sighting reported, the crackpots who think we have never been into space, that the moon is an optical illusion or is only 20 miles away and the crackheads who think the aliens are here already or that they are one of them!

Amidst all this garbage we are having to wade through it sometimes gets hard to know what's true and what isn't. So I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask about suspect information and see if others share your suspicions and why.

But to try and answer the question "Why reclassify Pluto?" (after 76 years), My gut feeling on this one is that some people have overly neat and tidy minds, which are intolerant of diversity and variation from the norm, and find it a problem that Pluto is smaller than 7 moons (and Mercury is smaller than 2 moons)

Not only is Pluto smaller than Earth's Moon, but it is also smaller than Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (Jupiter's 4 largest moons), Titan (Saturn's largest moon) and Triton (Neptune's largest moon). ie 7 Moons in all surpass it in size,

Here is a list of the top 18 objects in the Solar System by radius in kilometres and size relative to Earth:

1 Sun 696,000 109.25
2 Jupiter 69,911 10.97
3 Saturn 58,232 9.14
4 Uranus 25,362 3.98
5 Neptune 24,622 3.87
6 Earth 6371.0 1
7 Venus 6051.8 95.0%
8 Mars 3390.0 53.2%
9 Ganymede 2631.2 41.3%
10 Titan 2575 40.4%
11 Mercury 2439.7 38.3%
12 Callisto 2410.3 37.8%
13 Io 1821.5 28.6%
14 Moon 1737.1 27.3%
15 Europa 1561 24.5%
16 Triton 1353.4 21.2%
17 2003 UB313 1200 ± 50 19%
18 Pluto 1153 18.1%

This somehow offends against their heirarchical definitions of planetary status being higher than moon or asteroid status,

I wonder what they would make of the fact that as many as 60 asteroids are now known to have moons? (the asteroid 87 Sylvia has two moons for example) I bet it really screws up their sense of propriety about what a well-ordered universe should look like!

They probably find it equally offensive that some adults of short stature are not as tall as some children of "normal" height. Better reclassify them then and come up with a definition of adult that suits their prejudices and their concept of what is "normal" and what is "anomalous",

I find it all rather silly and terribly conformist, Why not accept people (and heavenly bodies) the way they are?

Answer 2

It is not true. Earth is considered a planet. Some think that Pluto should not be called a planet, because they found larger orbiting bodies than Pluto in the Solar System.

Answer 3

The Earth is definitely a planet.

Answer 4

No, that's not true. Maybe you're thinking about the planet Pluto. There's a debate going on about whether it should still be called a planet or not.

Answer 5

No, the earth is unquestionably a planet.

There is a question mark as to whether Pluto is really a planet as it's now thought to be not much more than a cloud of gas.

Answer 6

No, earth will still be considered a planet until humanity destroys it...

Answer 7

No, Earth is a planet. Pluto, on the other hand, may not be.

Answer 8

Not when people like you who are bigger than the planet it self exists on the planet - it is now considered a Gigantic Gas Ball !

Answer 9

Earth is definately a planet and will stay that way till the end of time*































*note: development of any antimatter weapons or mountain-sized black holes may void your warranty, if in doubt read the manual.

Answer 10

People were saying that Pluto wasn't a planet anymore.