Is pluto a planet?

Question

hey

Answer 1

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

no, pluto is not a planet.

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 ten. 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

Pluto was discovered in 1930 as a result of an extensive search by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. Some astronomers have long argued that Pluto's small size, less than one-fifth the diameter of Earth, and a weird tilted orbit that takes it inside Neptune every couple hundred years make Pluto more like a Kuiper Belt body than a full-fledged planet. On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union passed a new definition of planet that excludes Pluto and puts it in a new category of "dwarf planet."
That is what I found about pluto.

Answer 3

No, Pluto is not a planet. It never was a planet. In the 1930s when Pluto was discovered, no one knew about the Kuiper Belt, so they called it a planet, but it never really was.

Answer 4

The International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto was no longer a planet. Instead, they decided to classify it as a "dwarf planet".

See the details below.

RESOLUTION 5A
The IAU therefore resolves that "planets" and other bodies in our Solar System, except satellites, be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:

(1) A "planet" [footnote 1] is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

(2) A "dwarf planet" is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape [footnote 2] , (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.

(3) All other objects [footnote 3] except satellites orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar-System Bodies".


Footnote 1: The eight "planets" are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Footnote 2: An IAU process will be established to assign borderline objects into either dwarf planet and other categories.

Footnote 3: These currently include most of the Solar System asteroids, most Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), comets, and other small bodies.

RESOLUTION 6A
The IAU further resolves:

Pluto is a "dwarf planet" by the above definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects.

Answer 5

Pluto is no longer a planet

Answer 6

That depends.. As for me.. YOU BET IT IS STILL a planet.. I know that scientists have now downgraded it to a "something other than a planet" but I could not care less.. Pluto is still a planet

Answer 7

Pluto is not a planet, but "minor planet 134340 Pluto"

Answer 8

No,,,it is just one of many similar rocks in the outer solar system, if we continue to think of it as a "planet" we will have more planets than we know what to do with.

That being said,, I think it should retain it's name and continue to be the subject of scientific study and exploration.

Answer 9

yes pluto is a planet it is the smallest planet of all of the others

Answer 10

nope
it is just an orbiting piece of rock/ asteriod now

oh yuri, i think u might be wrong
see
the moon (our moon) revolves around the earth
but the earth revolves around the sun
so using the Transitive property, that means that the moon revolves around the sun
thus making it a planet in your theory
but in reality
the moon is NOT a planet
just like every other moon
and what about the asteriod belt
they arn't a huge cluster of planets
yet they revolve around the sun
so
think about your theory