why are they reconsidering to turn Pluto into an asstroid instead of a planet?

Answer 1

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

on 24 august 2006, the international astronomical union voted to reclassify pluto.

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. 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 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.

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

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". now that astronomers have found hundreds of other bodies with similar orbits, classifying "134340 pluto" as a planet is even more irrational. this was the right thing to do, believe me.

incidentally, "134340 pluto" was never a moon of neptune. neptune did capture triton. this is why triton has a retrograde orbit.

Answer 2

Actually, they are reclassifying Pluto as a "dwarf planet". They did this because it was becoming clear that there were many (perhaps 100's or 1000's) of objects in the solar system that were the same size or larger than Pluto. These objects are found out beyond the orbit of Neptune and are called "trans-Neptunian Objects" (TNO's). Also we discovered that Pluto is actually MUCH smaller than any Planet or moon in the solar system and it is similar in size to a large asteroid.

Either you were going to have to give up calling Pluto a "planet", or you were going to have to memorize Hundreds of other "dwarf planet" names in your astronomy studies when naming planets.

But I wouldn't get too excited about it. When the International Astronomical Union (IAU) meets again, they'll probably change the definition of "planet" yet again. The definition they adopted isn't particularly clear, and could use some improvement. But even so, it is unlikely that Pluto will be reclassified in the same category as the 8 major planets.

Answer 3

Why do you people have a problem with Pluto not being a planet?
Anyways, it was demoted because Pluto should never have been considered a planet in the first place. Ever since it was discovered, there have been debates concerning the status of Pluto. Pluto and Charon revolve about each other, so Pluto hasn't cleared it's orbit. Therefore it is not a planet. A planet shouldn't be revolving about a body other than a star.

Answer 4

The decision has already been made by the stuffed shirts of the International Astronomical Union--Pluto is now officially a "dwarf planet" (..not an asteroid). The main reason given is that Pluto has not cleared other objects out of its orbital path around the sun (..whatever the hell that means)

Answer 5

Actually they already have reclassified Pluto as an "object". They are waiting to see whether they will call it s "Dwarf Planet" and create a new catalog for it. If they do make it a "Dwarf Planer" there will be several objects in that catalog right off, including Pluto.

Answer 6

They call it a dwarf planet because it is smaller than the others. There is another dwarf plant. I think it is called Curus or something.

Answer 7

not considering it - its done The dudes in charge have demoted it to a dwarf planet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet