Why isn't Pluto a planet anymore?

Question

i can't quite understand why he got booted

Answer 1

Hate to tell ya this but all the people above me are dead wrong....


Pluto got booted cause its got an oval path instead of a circular one and that path over laps with Neptune sooooooo by definition a planet is suppose to have its OWN path that does not interact with anyother....lame I think but thats what they are sayin!

Answer 2

Size was something of an issue, Pluto is only the 18th largest object in the Solar System, behind 7 Moons and the candidate planet Xena.

See the table below.

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%

I suppose the feeling was that if Pluto remained a planet you could hardly refuse Xena (2003 UB313) that status and another 7 or 8 Trans-Neotunian Objects and the 4 largest asteroids (1 Ceres, 2 Pallas, 4 Vesta and 10 Hygiea) were all knocking on the door if the definition was stretched further,

So they copped out and downgraded Plutio, just as in the mid-19th Century faced with 12 planets (including the first 4 asteroids to be discovered) 18 moons and 11 more asteroids, they decided to demote 1 Ceres, 2 Pallas, 3 Juno and 4 Vesta rather than bump up the number of planets to 23 by accepting the 11 latest asteroids, discovered from 1845-1852 into the planetary club.

I suppose they felt, then and now that it could rapidly get very silly unless they pruned back the number of major planets.

Understandable as by 1868 the number of asteroids was to rise from the 15 of 1852 to 107 (which would have meant 115 planets if they had not have nipped it in the bud)

And similarly today the number of TNOs is rapidly burgeoning as the number of asteroids was, 150 years ago. It is currently over 1,000, all of them discovered since 1992.

Answer 3

In my opinion, it is ridiculous that Pltuo has been deprived of its planetary status. However, Pluto was not downsized due to its orbit. Every planet has a elliptical orbit.

I believe that Pluto was downsized because its orbit traverses through the Kuiper belt. Nevertheless, Pluto has always been a planet and still is! The recent proposal is a lie!

Answer 4

Pluto is no longer a planet. It is now a "dwarf." Here is why...

The IAU's new definition of a planet is that it must:

• Orbit the Sun

• Be big enough for its own gravity to compact it into a ball

• Have "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit," meaning it is not surrounded by objects of similar size and characteristics.

Answer 5

It's actually a Planetoid. Which is a Dwarf Planet. I really don't care what anyone says, it will ALWAYS be a planet in my book. I can already see the EMail coming around to keep Pluto as a Planet.

Personally, I say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Answer 6

Because some stuff shirt Geeks with Glasses took a vote.

That's what happens when you make Science a Democracy!

Tomorrow we're going to decide what is and isn't an ATOM!

Answer 7

pluto retired. pluto did not i repeat did not get booted. just a few hours ago pluto applied for a satelite job. so don't worry pluto is ok.

Answer 8

It's still a planet, but it's a dwarf planet instead of a major planet.

Answer 9

It's not official. They are considering it, but nothing is official yet. There is a committee that defines what a planet is, they say it meets all the requirements.

Answer 10

Don't worry, he is still Mickey Mouse's dog.