If Pluto's not a planet, how can it have moons, what is it, and how can it rotate around the sun?

Answer 1

lots of things rotate around the sun

having moons and solar orbit does not make something a planet

they actually classified it as a "dwarf planet"

Answer 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto

some consider pluto and charon to be a binary system, but two small bodies orbit this system. they are called nix and hydra.

pluto does orbit the sun, is ball-shaped, does not have an isolated orbit (a bunch of other similar bodies have similar orbits.), and is not a satellite so it is not a planet. i don't know how long this will drag on tho. many planetary astronomers are not satisfied that the definition is rigorous enuf. i can accept that the definition is flawed, but i can not accept that pluto is a 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 several discoveries.

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 "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. now that astronomers have found hundreds of other bodies with similar orbits, classifying "134340 pluto" as a planet is even more irrational.

incidental, "134340 pluto" was never a moon of neptune. neptune did capture triton. this is why triton has a retrograde orbit. triton is spiraling in toward neptune and will break into pieces when it gets close enuf. neptune will then have a more extensive ring system than saturn.

Answer 3

Pluto is not a planet because it isn't large enough to "clean up" all rocks in it orbit. It's "moon" is Charon (pronounced "Sharon"). You are right that since Pluto is no longer considered a planet, Charon cannot be a moon any longer. They are gravitationally locked asteriods. Pluto had other moons. (See link below). This is not so unusual. There are many losely bound asteroid clusters through-out the solar system. They can rotate around the sun like other planets and asteroids since they are gravitationally locked by the sun's gravitational pull.

I don't like the new classification of Pluto as a "dwarf planet". A compact car is still a car. Pluto should really be called a Kuiper belt object.

Answer 4

Everything in the Solar System revolves around the sun.

What do you think they do, if they don't? Stand still somewhere?

Now Pluto is not considered a planet, it can be said to have a companion - Charon.

There are asteroids that have companions (mini-moons). So, that is not a criterion for calling something a planet.

From stars right down to meteroic dust - they are just objects. What they are called is fairly arbitary, but for sceintific purposes, they need to be classified according to certain criteria.

Now they know more about Pluto, and other similar bodies have been found, Pluto has a new classification.

Re-classification goes on all the time in science. Get over it.

Answer 5

Pluto is now a dwarf planet. Charon, its "moon" is considered by some to be a part of a two planet system with Pluto because of their similarity in size and the way that they both orbit each other. Those who consider Charon to be a satellite must be content with that as its title. As for Pluto orbiting the sun, all asteroids, comets, specks of dust, and meteoroids in our solar system orbit the sun.

Answer 6

Last I heard, Pluto was once again considered a planet. The new requirements for being a planet are fairly lax, generally consisting of anything very large and round with an orbit around the sun. The people that decide what is a planet and what is not generally change their mind ever so often.
Just about everything in the solar system orbits around the sun. Common comets that we see on certain intervals are actually travelling in odd orbits around the sun. They essentially, go past the sun, and then slingshot back around the other side.

Answer 7

Somebody please clear up an obvious misunderstanding I have about this new definition:

Since Pluto’s orbit crosses within that of Neptune, it is, under the new definition, not considered a planet.

However, since Pluto’s orbit crosses within that of Neptune, and Neptune has not cleared it away from it’s neighborhood, how is Neptune still considered a planet within the new definition?

It seems that there are a lot of astronomers that need to go back to school. There are some basic logical problems with this “definition”.

Answer 8

It doesn't have to be a planet to have moons.
It is a dwarf planet under the new definition
It doesn't have to be a planet to rotate around the sun
Everything in our solar system rotates around the sun

Answer 9

it doesnt have moons...according 2 science, pluto is a moon that belongs to neptune...it got knocked out of orbit or sumthin...a moon is sumthin that orbits a planet....a planet is sumthin that orbits the sun....thats y i think that pluto is a planet...it could have been a moon at 1 time but now it orbits the sun so its called a planet

Answer 10

They say size doesn't matter, but it was a big deal to about 260 members of the IAU.

It is "too small" to be a planet.