What should the planet already known as pluto be names and not a number?

Answer 1

well maybe the planet already known as pluto can be changed to a symbol like prince had and then we can call it the planet formally known as pluto because we wouldn't know what to call the symbol.

Answer 2

There seems to be a rumour going around that Pluto is being stripped of iys name and will henceforth only be known as a number. That is not the case.

The Minor Planet Centre has been classifying and catalogoing minor planets since 1801 when 1 Ceres was discovered, rapdily followed by 2 Pallas, 3 Juno and then 4 Vespa.

134340 Pluto is the way Pluto is listed in the MPC lists, It didn't have a number previously because it was a planet,, and planets don't have numbers and don't appear in the Minor Planet Centre's lists. Now that Pluto is no longer regarded as a planet, it has gained a number in addition to its name, that is all.

Sometimes it is necessary to quote the number because there is another celestial body (a moon of a planet for example) with the same or a very similar name. Say Io and even though you mean the asteroid 52 Io, people will think you mean Io, the moon of Jupiter. So the number needs to be included to avoid confusion.

But there is no other body named Pluto, so it isn't necessary in Pluto's case, so carry on saying Pluto.

Answer 3

the planets are mercury, venus, earth, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, and neptune.

http://www.iau.org/fileadmin/content/pdfs/Resolution_GA26-5-6.pdf

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://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 4

It could have a name and a number. Astronomical objects, particularly important ones, tend to get several names and numbers attached to them. For example, the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest big galaxy to the Milky Way, is also known as M31, NGC224, and the Andromeda Nebula. This is because astronomers make lists of all known objects of a given type, and an object can be on more than one list and so get more than one number. It's confusing. Cross-referencing is essential.

Pluto will always be Pluto, even if it gets other designations as well.

Answer 5

Pluto will keep its name. It just won't be the planet Pluto any more, it will be the dwarf planet Pluto. Just like what happened to Ceres around 1830. It used to be the planet Ceres and now it is the asteroid Ceres.

Answer 6

Planet X originally

Answer 7

because the characters who downgraded my poor Pluto are embarrassed and had to do something different

Answer 8

it's being deleted as a planet...they are assinging it a number as the new identification...

Answer 9

I dont understand your question