A planet must orbit the sun (or another star), have sufficient mass to pull itself into a nearly spherical shape, and must have "cleared the neighborhood" of its orbit. That is, it should be by far the largest object in its orbit and any smaller bodies should be dominated by its orbital characteristics. For example, even though Pluto's orbit crosses Neptune's, Neptune has cleared Pluto from its orbit because Pluto orbits in resonance with Neptune and is always far away from it. Similarly, Jupiter has cleared its orbit, but two groupings of asteroids orbit in synch with it, dominated by its gravity. In addition, to be a planet, an object cannot be a star (defined by fusing deuterium in its core).
2006-08-28 02:40:27
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answer #1
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answered by DavidK93 7
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