Were the eggheads right to declassify Pluto as a planet?

Answer 1

huh ? i didn't even know that it has be declassified , oh , no i don't think it is right , its been a planet ever since records began , and what i also don't get is when they say , nothing could life there because there's no water or air , if there aliens , they may not need water and air to survive , do you think I'm right ???

Answer 2

The scientific community had to make a choice of either having Pluto declassified as a planet or add about 100 more planets to our solar system. They have recently discovered quite a few Pluto sized objects (many larger than Pluto) orbiting at the outer edge of our solar system. Pluto was only made a planet in the last century and just because an object orbits the sun and has a moon does not make it a planet. if these where the only criteria we used then mercury and Venus need to be declassified b/c they have no moons. If you want to consider any object orbiting the sun then we have many millions of asteroids in the milky way asteroid belt that should be made planets. I think the scientist community was right in their decision.

Answer 3

Well since pluto is the size of Nth America and so much smaller than the other planets then it seems a bit silly to call it a planet instead of a large rock so I'm for it. Just feels like the whole solar system is a bit smaller now though.

Answer 4

the international astronomical union defined three terms "planet", "dwarf planet", and "small solar system body". this does not change anything about the solar system or pluto. it just corrects the mistake of classifying pluto as a planet initially.

i have been waiting for this since i was about twelve. i feel somewhat satisfied. this was the right thing to do, believe me. i don't understand why so many are having such a problem with this. this same thing happened after astronomers found a large number of bodies orbiting the sun between the orbits of mars and jupiter in the early 1800s.

because pluto orbits the sun, is round, does not have an isolated orbit (a bunch of other similar bodies that have similar orbits.), and is not a satellite it is a dwarf planet.

(1) A "planet" is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

(2) A "dwarf planet" is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, (c) has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.

(3) All other objects orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as "small solar system bodies".


look here:
http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0603/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt

Answer 5

It does seem to make sense because Pluto is very small (20% the size of our moon) and has an orbit that is so eliptical that it crosses with the orbit of neptune.

But Pluto has been put into the catagory of 'dwarf planet' along with two others; so it has not been completely thrown out of the solar system.

Answer 6

Sort of.

The logic is that there are probably hundreds of pluto sized objects floating around near pluto... and if pluto is a planet then so should they all be.

But no-one really wants a solar system with hundreds of crappy little planets floating around in the middle of no-where, so the best thing to do was probably to say 'actually... Pluto isn't really a planet.'

Its a shame that Pluto has been demoted, but at least we can still call it the original planetoid.... or pluton.... or whatever they've decided to call 'em.

Answer 7

I guess the only way to slove this would be t visit Pluto and see if it is a planet. The problem of course is that by the time you got there and then came back to give us the answer we would all be dead and the new people on the planet would not care. It bothers me not!!

Answer 8

I believe they were, because there are a number of other bodies in the asteroid belt outside of pluto's orbit that are bigger than pluto, and follow a similar orbit. There is also something about the composition of pluto that makes it less planet-like than most people would think.

Answer 9

Hard to digest. We're living in 2006. In this age anything is possible.

Be ready to hear that
1. Life exist on Mars.
2. Jupiter is a Asteroid.
& 3. Bin Laden had breakfast lunch and dinner in the White House.

Answer 10

It's still a planet, just a dwarf one now which I think is right but most evidence came from its orbit, well if that was applied to all planets then maybe Mercury has a case to be de-classified.