Pluto has been a planet of wonder for many years! Why has it been taken out of the solar system ?

Question

Please provide a good answer

Answer 1

First of all it is still there, No-one has sent a spacecraft round to tow it away to a planet pound in Alpha Centauri! It is now defined and perceived being a dwarf planet, one of three objects in that new category, along with Eris (the permanent name for "Xena") and the asteroid Ceres.

This is as a result of reclassification of objects in the solar system by the International Astronomical Union meeting in the Czech capital, Prague, 4 weeks ago, There have been a number of such re-assessments over the years: with a change in the total number of recognised planets as a result.

First to be dropped from the planetary club were the Sun and the Moon in 1543 (after 2,000+ years of membership) and the earth was finally admitted as a Johnny Come Lately with the acceptance of Copernicus' heliocentric model of the solar system

The Galilean Moons of Jupiter, were called the "Medicean Planets" by their discoverer, Galileo Galilei after their discovery in 1610:

Callisto
Europa
Ganymede
Io

Three moons of Saturn discovered by Christiaan Huygens and Jean-Dominique Cassini

Titan – referred to as a Planetes novus (new planet) in Huygens' Systema Saturnium

Iapetus and Rhea were called nouvelles planètes (new planets) in Cassini's Découverte de deux nouvelles planetes autour de Saturne

As more moons were discovered, people stopped thinking of the first 7 to be found as planets. The idea was dropped and "moon" as something orbiting a planet became accepted as a different category.

Uranus joined the planetary club in 1781 and Neptune in 1846,

The first 15 asteroids discovered were initially welcomed into the club but then blackballed and demoted again as the number of asteroids discovered began to rise and rise. Ceres lasted just over half a century as a member.

Pluto was considered a planet from its discovery on February 18 1930 through to its redesignation as a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet on August 24 2006.

90377 Sedna was considered to be a planet in some newspaper reports at the time of its discovery.

Eris was considered a planet by many authorities (eg., NASA) from its discovery on January 5, 2005 through to its official designation as a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet on August 24 2006.

I make that a total of 27 objects given a new status, other than planet and demoted from being a planet in the past 463 years (and only 3 promoted to being planets):

1 as a star
8 as moons (ours, 4 Jovian & 3 Saturnian moons)
15 as asteroids (Ceres and 14 others)
2 as dwarf planets (Pluto and Eris)
1 as an extended scattered disk object (Sedna)

We really did ought to be getting used to this by now!

Answer 2

Little Pluto, formerly the solar system's smallest planet, was stripped of its status by the International Astronomical Union, reducing the number of planets to eight. The new guidelines - introduced after a week of debate by the 2,500 astronomers at the organization's conference - define what is a planet and what is not. Pluto didn't make the cut. Pluto has been considered a planet since its discovery in 1930. Under the new guidelines, it's now considered a "dwarf planet," leaving eight planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto, which is smaller than Earth's moon, doesn't fit the new criteria for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit." Pluto doesn't qualify because its orbit is inclined relative to the rest of the solar system and crosses over the orbit of Neptune. The IAU also introduced a third class, "small solar-system bodies," for objects smaller than dwarf planets, such as asteroids and comets, that orbit the sun.
Astronomers have been working without a solid definition of a planet since the days of Copernicus. The new definitions fill that void. A few weeks ago, the IAU's leader suggested a different definition for planet that would have included Pluto, its moon Charon, the asteroid Ceres and a recently discovered object, 2003 UB313, which is slightly larger than Pluto and was nicknamed Xena. The plan was unpopular among the astronomers at the conference and led to the long debate. This wasn't the first demotion for a body formerly considered a planet.
Ceres was considered a planet when it was first discovered in 1801.However, after the size of Ceres was determined and other bodies were found in a belt between Mars and Jupiter, it lost its status. The term "asteroid," meaning "star-like," was coined to describe them. Three other "planets" became "asteroids" at the same time.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Pluto, the last planet to join the heavenly pantheon, became the first to leave it. The status of Pluto had been under discussion for some time, but with the discovery of 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena, the question became acute, for it seemingly had as much right as Pluto to be called a planet.

On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union surprised the world by voting in a new definition of planet, one that would exclude Pluto and bring the total number down to eight. (There had previously been been strong speculation that the redefinition would bring the total up to 12 instead of down.)

Pluto was instead classified as a dwarf planet, along with Ceres and the aforementioned Xena. The main difference between a dwarf planet and the real thing is that the dwarf variety has not cleared the area of its orbital path.

This redefinition met with a wave of protests from those who wanted to see the ninth planet grandfathered in, including but not limited to supporters of the late Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. His widow, however, said he would have been accepting of the IAU's decision since "he was a scientist" and understood that astronomers had to take into account newly discovered objects in the Kuiper Belt (where Pluto is located).

But opponents of Pluto's demotion remain unconsoled and have generated a thriving industry in T-shirts, mugs and other memorabilia. Among the many slogans of this movement was one which played on the mnemonic for the names of the erstwhile nine:

"My! Very educated morons just screwed up numerous planetariums."

Answer 4

first off, it is not out of our solar system. It still exists, just under a different definitions of terms. The reason pluto was downgraded is because of new terms and definitions that have been created in the astronomic community.
Pluto was taken off the list because it is now one of many objects of that size that have been found in the last 70 years since pluto was discovered.
Basically, if pluto were to remain in the definitions of a "planet" then all the other pluto-like objects in our solar system (some as big and bigger than pluto) would have to become planets. Unfortunately, it would be much more difficult to teach all new generations of children and such about the "150 planet solar system" instead of the 8 planet solar system and it's surrounding objects like dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, and moons (all of these definitions of different sized phenomena in the solar system)
Hope i explained it good enough

Answer 5

don't worry about my answer. they are always good.

pluto is not a planet. pluto and charon are considered a binary system, but two small bodies orbit this system. they are called nix and hydra. this does not change anything about the solar system or pluto. it just corrects the mistake of classifying pluto as a planet initially.

http://www.iau.org/fileadmin/content/pdfs/Resolution_GA26-5-6.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto

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 so it is a dwarf planet.

this same thing has happened before. beginning in 1800, astronomers found a few bodies orbiting between the orbits of mars and jupiter, and they finally stopped calling them planets after the fourth discovery. astronomers then added numerals to the names, and pluto recently got its numeral. 150 years from now, no one will think of "134340 pluto" as a planet. very few will even know we classified it as a planet. "1 ceres" and "136199 eris" are other dwarf planets.

i have been waiting for this since i was about twelve. i feel somewhat satisfied. i knew that pluto didn't fit the pattern set by the major bodies in the solar system so it was an anomaly. it just felt illogical and "out of place". this was the right thing to do, believe me. i don't understand why so many are having such a problem with this.

i don't know how long this will drag on tho. many planetary scientists are not satisfied that the definition is rigorous enough.

Answer 6

It's has a orbit around Neptune there for it is a asteroid or moon.
This debate was started by The discovery of a 10th planet now downgraded to asteroid it was named Xena.
Since the discovery of Pluto in 1930 astronomers had considered the solar system to have nine planets and assorted other bodies. However, since 2000 the discovery of at least three bodies (Quaoar, Sedna and Eris), all comparable to Pluto in terms of size and orbit, had led to a situation where either the minor bodies would have to be added to the list of officially recognized planets or older ones would need to be removed in order to ensure consistency in definition. There were also concerns surrounding the classification of planets in other solar systems. In 2006 the matter came to a head with the need to categorize and name the recently-discovered trans-Neptunian object Eris, which, being larger than Pluto, was thought to be at least equally deserving of the status of 'planet'.

Debate within the IAU led Julio Fernández and Gonzalo Tancredi of Uruguay[1] to suggest proposals to redefine the term "planet" so as to include other objects beyond the traditional nine planets that had been historically considered part of the solar system.[2] In its final form the proposal was denoted as Resolutions 5A, 5B, 6A and 6B for GA-XXVI. Members of the IAU's General Assembly voted on the proposal on August 24, 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic, with the vote removing Pluto's status as a planet and reclassifying it as a dwarf planet.[3] Pluto had long been exceptional among the planets, being small, distant, and eccentric in orbit.

In its original form the redefinition would have kept Pluto as a planet and recognized three new planets: Ceres, Charon, and Eris. It was presumed that, after more observation and discussion, astronomers would accept more objects in the solar system as meeting the new definition. On August 22, however, the original redefinition (which recognized twelve solar system planets, including Pluto), was dealt a fatal blow in two open IAU meetings. Jay Pasachoff of Williams College, who attended both meetings, was quoted as saying, "I think that today can go down as 'the day we lost Pluto'

Answer 7

Our solar system posseses many sun/planet orbiting planetoids of varying sizes. Scientists admit that probably many of these have not yet been discovered. As such they have invented a categorisation method based on size in order to say that a planetoid is really a planet. Otherwise, every piece of large rock orbiting the sun would be a "planet". It just happens that Pluto does not fulfill the size requirement and is now deemed a dwarf planet.

Answer 8

It has not been taken out, just demoted.

Previously, any large object with a regular orbit around the sun and no other solar object (i.e. the moon around earth and sun) was considered a planet. The definition has been upgraded and modified and Pluto did not make the cut.

Answer 9

I think it's just another example of our human obsession with size. As far as I know, it has moons, it has an atmosphere, it orbits the sun, and it's still a planet to me. To me it has always been that mysterious little planet on the outskirts of our solar system that we know so little about.

Maybe someday when we do actually know something about it, the scientists who reclassified it will be seen as buffoons. Maybe.

I think pluto is just another victim of size discrimination. Jupiter and Saturn aren't really planets either. They're big balls of gas, but they are impressively huge. They are actually closer to being stars than planets.

Uranus and Neptune are basically giant frozen fart bubbles.

Ur anus, fart bubble, ha, I kill me.

In case you aren't catching my drift, they are big balls of frozen methane. All four of the gas giants are too huge to be solid, and are no more true planets than the sun.

But let's pick on little Pluto, he's small enough for us to kick around.

Remember, some people, like Randy Newman, don't consider dwarf people to be viable either.

Let's sing along together now: tall people with no talent got no reason to sing.

Answer 10

Because, Pluto is no longer classified as a planet simply by a planet's definition. Pluto is too small in size to be considered a planet. However, it is big enough to qualify to be a moon and not a star. In this case, size does matter!

Answer 11

i know that pluto was a cute planet and we loved it a lots. but 48% scientists believed that pluto was not a planet because many a times it crosses neptune's orbit and becomes the 8th planet. and now all the scientists are thinking the samething. hence pluto is no more considered to be a planet.
liked my ANS.bye.....................