On Yahoo Answers, many many people have been saying that its not a planet... what about the textbooks? On one of the questions, some one said they heard that they were only considering it... Did they make a conclusion? And if they DID make a comclusion, when was it made?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060824084200AAsM6X5
Look @ the second one up from the bottom...
2006-09-08 10:47:45 · 20 answers · asked by I ♥ Maximum Ride 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
okay, okay... decision, not conclusion...watever... lol.
2006-09-08 11:04:01 · update #1
Acertain astronomical Society sets the limits for what makes a planet. ie: it has to be so big, maybe have so much mass, revolve around a star and so on. It seems that many miles outside of pluto they have found other masses that could have fit the description of a planet in our solar system. Maybe we would have had 4 more planets then. And maybe in 10 years they might find more, so they set a new description of what costitues a planet in our system. Its all in the definition dear.
2006-09-08 10:54:34 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Is it really a planet?: The answer to this depends on who you ask, and there has been a lot of arguing about it in the last ten years or so. Some people consider Pluto to be a planet. Some would call it an asteroid, or "minor planet". Some call it a comet. Some think it's "something new", not in any of the above classes.
The "planet" defenders point out that we've called Pluto a planet since it was found in 1930. Everybody is used to learning that there are nine planets when they're in grade school, and we shouldn't just rewrite all the textbooks for no good reason. Also, it's a lot bigger than anything we call an asteroid. (Pluto is something like 2300 kilometers across, 2/3 as big as the Moon. The largest asteroid, Ceres, is about 900 km.)
The "asteroid/minor planet" people point out that, had Pluto been found in the last ten years or so, we would have applied current knowledge and classified it as an asteroid, without much argument over the matter. That's partly because we have recently discovered that there are a fair number of objects in the outer solar system, and Pluto appears to just be the largest of many. These are the "Trans-Neptunian objects" or "TNOs", or "Kuiper-belt objects"; they've been a hot subject in astronomy lately.
The people with this viewpoint also mention that Pluto is smaller than the other planets, it's in an asteroid-like orbit, and it doesn't even faintly resemble the other planets that far from the sun. They will also cite:
find out more on http://www.projectpluto.com/pluto.htm#is_it_a_planet
2006-09-08 10:57:15 · answer #2 · answered by :) 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
yes, pluto is really not a planet. the vote was 24 august 2006.
http://www.iau.org/fileadmin/content/pdfs/Resolution_GA26-5-6.pdf
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 don't know how long this will drag on tho. many planetary scientists are not satisfied that the definition is not rigorous enough.
because pluto orbits the sun, is round, does not have an isolated orbit (a bunch of other similar bodies have similar orbits.), and is not a satellite it is a dwarf planet.
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.
look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt
2006-09-08 11:07:21 · answer #3 · answered by warm soapy water 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It was classified as one of the classical planets but since the orbit crosses Neptune every 250 years it is now a dwarf planet along with Charon and two other dwarf planets recently discovered.
2006-09-08 14:22:18 · answer #4 · answered by lonelyanswers 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah the "experts" just changed their minds about Pluto being a planet a little less than a month ago. I don't know why or how they can do this. I think they should let Pluto be a planet.
2006-09-08 10:57:04 · answer #5 · answered by classic_tigger 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I read they were going to start calling Pluto, Charon and bodies like Quarar (I don't know how to spell it) Plutons. Supposedly there are an overwhelming number of them just know being found by Hubble Space Telescope. Now I think they are just going to refer to them as Dwarf Planets.
2006-09-08 13:08:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Based on what experts have defined as a planet, Pluto is not a planet. Its orbit is not cleared as it crosses the orbit of Neptune twice every 250 years.
Basically for the common person, it is still a chunk of ice way the hell out there.
2006-09-08 10:51:54 · answer #7 · answered by msi_cord 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I believe it is. It still orbits the sun. it may only be a ball of ice, but it still orbits the sun. Scientist did officially demote pluto as a non planet last week.
2006-09-08 10:55:39 · answer #8 · answered by ossifer8301 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It's still a planet, but a "dwarf planet". It really affects nothing, other than how astronomers talk to each other.
2006-09-08 11:35:36 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I've long considered Pluto to not be a planet, because of the eccenticity of its orbit - it doesn't orbit in the plane of the ecliptic, where all the planets can be found.
2006-09-08 11:00:43 · answer #10 · answered by wleef2002 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋