Is Pluto still a true planet?

Question

By the official definition of a planet, Pluto is not a planet but a dwarf planet...which technically isn't a true planet. Also by this definition, Earth and Jupiter aren't true planets.
If Dwarf planets are deemed true planets, then we have 11 known planets in our solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, CERES,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, PLUTO, ERIS)
So, would Pluto be considered a true planet, thus having 11 planets in the solar system...or not a true planet?

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. i do not understand why so many are having a problem with this.

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

Answer 2

There is no limit on the greatest size of a 'True Planet' right now, only on the smallest; Pluto, being smaller despite having it's own moon, is now considered a Dwarf Planet. If Earth were to be declassified, so would Mars, Mercury and Venus, and we would have a grand total of about four True Planets. Plus, humans are arrogant enough to want to mark their planet as being one of the 'True' ones. Jupiter and the other gas Giants are all still considered planets -- this again is because of human arrogance; we can't have a planet be greater than us when it hasn't even got life forms on it! So Jupiter and Saturn and the rest are still classified as 'Gas Giants' but still True Planets, Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury, and Uranus are considered 'True Planets' and Pluto, Ceres, Eris and the various other small planet-like objects in Orbit around Sol are Considered Dwarf Planets. Anything smaller is considered a Satellite, or a Meteor or Meteorite.

Answer 3

For a long time, the majority of people has always known a solar system with nine planets including Pluto. So even if some scientist comes up with and exponation of why Pluto is not a real planet, everyone will always know about the existacne of Pluto. Just like that. So in my book, I'll always know about a planet called Pluto

Answer 4

Scientists decide Pluto’s no longer a planet. The distant, ice-covered world is no longer a true planet, according to a new definition of the term voted on by scientists today.Pluto has been demoted because it does not dominate its neighborhood. Charon, its large "moon," is only about half the size of Pluto, while all the true planets are far larger than their moons. In addition, bodies that dominate their neighborhoods, "sweep up" asteroids, comets, and other debris, clearing a path along their orbits. By contrast, Pluto's orbit is somewhat untidy. The embarrassing part is that Charon is so large compared with Pluto that its tidal forces have tidally locked Pluto’s rotation where both moon and planet show the same side to each other as they waltz forever in space. Maybe Pluto isn’t really a planet.

Answer 5

Pluto is no longer a planet. Just Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Answer 6

The entire question is a matter of definition. The specific definition of a "planet" as adopted by the IAU moves Pluto into a separate category of "dwarf planet". Operating definitions change over time. I believe, at one point, Ceres was considered a "true planet" soon after it was discovered. Once additional asteroids were discovered, Ceres lost its "planetary" status.

Right now, if one uses the IAU-adopted definition, there are eight "true planets" and three "dwarf planets". There will certainly be a lot more "dwarf planets" designated as the Kuiper Belt is mapped more thoroughly.

Answer 7

What are you talking about? Do you even know the definition to say that Earth and Jupiter shouldn't be "true planets"?

Pluto is not considered a planet and quite rightly. It never was a planet and there were always debates about it. Scientists first thought it was a planet before Charon was discovered, because they assumed Charon was part of Pluto. Then they discovered Charon is a satellite about half the size of Pluto and has a gravitational force strong enough to distort Pluto's orbit. In fact Pluto and Charon revolve around each other. How can something be considered a planet when it orbits something other than a star?

If Pluto is considered a real planet, then there would be literally hundreds of planets orbiting the sun, because there are lots of bodies about the size of Pluto.

Answer 8

Other than size another reason Pluto is not deemed a planet is due to the highly elliptical orbit. Its orbit also does not lie on the same plane as all of the other planets which is yet another reason why Pluto is no longer classified as a planet.

Answer 9

No pluto is no longer a planet. We have 8 planets in our solar system now.

Answer 10

Pluto is still a planet as I see because I don't feel that they are able to get a true measurment on it since it is unreachable by any type of space craft. So yes pluto will always be a true planet.