Pluto not a planet
2006-10-03 00:29:33 · 11 answers · asked by hrdkbhatia 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule
Mason Inman
for National Geographic News
August 24, 2006 (Updated 3:30 p.m. ET)
Pluto has been voted off the island.
The distant, ice-covered world is no longer a true planet, according to a new definition of the term voted on by scientists today.
"Whoa! Pluto's dead," said astronomer Mike Brown, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, as he watched a Webcast of the vote. "There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system."
In a move that's already generating controversy and will force textbooks to be rewritten, Pluto will now be dubbed a dwarf planet.
But it's no longer part of an exclusive club, since there are more than 40 of these dwarfs, including the large asteroid Ceres and 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena—a distant object slightly larger than Pluto discovered by Brown last year.
"We know of 44" dwarf planets so far, Brown said. "We will find hundreds. It's a very huge category."
A clear majority of researchers voted for the new definition at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague, in the Czech Republic. The IAU decides the official names of all celestial bodies.
The tough decision comes after a multiyear search for a scientific definition of the word "planet." The term never had an official meaning before.
2006-10-05 03:53:45 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
pluto is no more a planet but a dwarf planet.Pluto, (officially designated 134340 Pluto), is the second-largest dwarf planet in the solar system.Approximately one-fifth the mass of the Earth's Moon, Pluto is primarily composed of rock and ice. it was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh Discovered on February 18, 1930
2006-10-03 01:04:23 · answer #2 · answered by rocky 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
pluto is a planet
2006-10-03 00:40:08 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Few years ago one of the museums in new york questioned it as a planet since then the society recently classified it as non planet.
There is a movement to reclassify it as a plate.
The choice is yours.
2006-10-03 03:42:31 · answer #4 · answered by minootoo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Will be by me mate!!!! I didn't spend the better part of my primary school years learning the bloody planet rhyme I never got right at school, though feel ripped off now I have it down pat!!!!!
What is astronomy coming to????
2006-10-04 01:12:03 · answer #5 · answered by renclrk 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's considered a 'dwarf planet' now.
2006-10-03 00:35:58 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Toh kya karein bhai mere.
Apna sawaal to puchho!
2006-10-03 00:41:25 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
ofcorse...its now such calld"dwarf planet"..all it really was an asteroid same as its moon charon bth astroids trapped by da sunz gravty..
2006-10-03 00:38:36 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah thats going to take some getting use to.
2006-10-03 00:37:53 · answer #9 · answered by Brad B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i still tink it is it will allways b a planet lol !!
2006-10-03 00:32:43 · answer #10 · answered by count bert 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋