How is Pluto Not a Planet?

Question

Pluto orbits the sun like mercury,venus & mars it has a moon as well. Thats a planet to me and in 2015 (if nothing happends 2012) everyone will be proven wrong!

Answer 1

Pluto was always a planet the issue is that since recently the astronomers had been wisely enough working without any conventional definition of what a planet was. Now that they have dared to define it they have really screwed up. But as they know well that bad news and controversy is better than no news and since Einstein the astronomer have been belittled by the molecular phisicists who were defining what was and was not going on in the universe, they were fed up of being ignored and it was a good way to get noticed.

They have succeded, now we know why they should not receive a single buck to look for black matter and black holes which they have not found after so many years. Specially after the theory of relativity porved that anyone who looks at the sky and stars, because of the speed of light might be looking at objects which do no exist anymore and have disappeared long ago, yet for humans they all share (existing and non existing) a simultaneous space/time (we call it the sky).

They also have come up with a very original theory that the universe is composed of something like 5 % of known objects, 15 % unknown objetcs and an 80 % of things they do not even slightly grasp (i.e.80 % 0f ignorance). Let us keep up the funding and getting their big fat ars-s become a planet.

Knowledge is convention. Knowledge is language. Planets are not planets. Planet is just a word, in this case of the english language, since even in other indoeuropean languages we do not say planet. Mathematics was never an universal code untill they declared so quite recently, and its still only a human code and nothing more, agreed arbitrarily among many possible codes, though convention. Calling it a language is a philological heressy, even long after the establishment of arab numbers, different than the roman numerals, or greek who used letters like the jews, or the egiptians that used fingers and flowers and the chinese used other signs etc etc. During many years travellers had a lot of trouble dealing with any amount larger than the 10 fingers of both hands together.

Academia is full of crap and is like an old building with rotten foundations and a lot of false pride that one of this days is going to fell down and is going to leave Sofie, (Sophia) in the streets begging for a dime and all the rest of the scientist with the monkey on their back trying to get rid of their addiction (philo) to Sopwi.
Br
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Answer 2

Well for starters, Pluto is just too small. In the neighborhood where Pluto lives? Planets are supposed to be huge. The Jovian planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are 20 to 300 times the size of the Earth, and Pluto is really small compared to the Earth, smaller than our Moon. Kind of stands out.

And Pluto is not made out the same material as the Jovians. The large planets are mostly gigantic spheres of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. Likely there are no solid surfaces, only denser and denser gas all the way in. Pluto is a small solid world of methane, water, carbon dioxide and ammonia ices, maybe a little rock and with a just hint of atmosphere (that freezes out and falls as snow in her "winter").

And third, Pluto's orbit is the most eccentric (oval shaped) and the most tilted to the plane that the rest of the planets orbit in. Also, Pluto is locked in a resonance with Neptune's orbit and comes closer to the sun than Neptune sometimes.

There were theories that Pluto was a lost moon of Neptune but that was before we discovered she a has one large moon (Charon) half her size (pretty much, this system is a double planet) and recently two other teeny-tiney moons.

Pluto seems like she cant be an ejected moon-she must have formed on her own and seems to be part of an entire army of small icey-dwarf objects that circle just outside Neptune's orbit in what is known as the Kuiper belt. We have no idea of how many or how large these objects may be. NOT "planets" proper, hence the new term "dwarf planet" where Pluto is king.

BUT I still think Pluto should be called a planet because of historical reasons (discovered by an American, financed by Percival Lowell, Tombaugh's life story, etc).

Answer 3

Pluto is what it is. What we choose to call it is arbitrary. The word Planet is derived from the greek Planetes which means "wanderer". It was used to refer to the stars in the sky that appeared to move relative to the other stars, or "wandered". Earth itself was not considered a planet at this time, as they believed everything revolved around the Earth. The sun and moon were even considered planets.

Eventually, as geocentrism started to take hold, people realized Earth was just like the other "planets" and was itself a planet. During the 1800's, other larger objects were observed in the astroid belt, such as Ceres, Palas, and Vesta, and they too were considered planets. At one time there were thought to be 13 or even more planets. We've all grown up knowing that there were 9 planets. That's what they taught us in school.

The IAU (the authority on all things astronomical) has most recently come up with a specific definition of the world planet. One part of this definition is that the object in question must have cleared the neighborhood around it's orbit. Pluto has not done this. It routinely passes near objects in the Kuiper Belt (often called Plutinos). Therefore it is not consdiered a planet, but a dwarf planet, which is the same thing as a planet except for not fulfilling this one requirement.

Answer 4

IAU Decision
Main article: 2006 redefinition of planet
The debate came to a head in 2006 with an IAU resolution that created an official definition for the term "planet". According to this resolution, there are three main conditions for an object to be considered a 'planet':

The object must be in orbit around the Sun.
The object must be massive enough to be a sphere by its own gravitational force. More specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape of hydrostatic equilibrium.
It must have cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
Pluto fails to meet the third condition.[31] The IAU further resolved that Pluto be classified in the simultaneously created dwarf planet category, and that it act as prototype for a yet-to-be-named category of trans-Neptunian objects, in which it would be separately, but concurrently, classified.


Impact of the IAU decision
There has been resistance amongst the astronomical community towards the reclassification,[32] dubbed the "Great Pluto War" by some astronomers.[33][34] Alan Stern, principal investigator with NASA's "New Horizons" mission to Pluto, has publicly derided the IAU resolution, stating that "the definition stinks" albeit "for technical reasons."[35] Stern's current contention is that by the terms of the new definition Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune, all of which share their orbits with asteroids would be excluded.[36] However, his own published writing has supported the new list of planets, as "our solar system clearly contains" eight planets that have cleared their neighbourhoods, however, he does not deny planetary classification to objects like Pluto & Ceres that have not "cleared their neighbourhood".[37]. Marc W. Buie of the Lowell observatory has voiced his opinion on the new definition on his website and is one of the petitoners against the definition. [38]Others have supported the IAU. Mike Brown, the astronomer who discovered Eris, said "through this whole crazy circus-like procedure, somehow the right answer was stumbled on. It’s been a long time coming. Science is self-correcting eventually, even when strong emotions are involved."[39]

Among the general public, reception is mixed amidst widespread media coverage. Some have accepted the reclassification, while some are seeking to overturn the decision, with online petitions urging the IAU to consider reinstatement. A resolution introduced by some members of the California state assembly light-heartedly denounces the IAU for "scientific heresy," among other crimes.[40] Others reject the change for sentimental reasons, citing that they have always known Pluto as a planet and will continue to do so regardless of the IAU decision[41].

The words "plutoed" and its variant "to pluto" were coined in the aftermath of the decision. In January 2007, the American Dialect Society chose "plutoed" as its 2006 Word of the Year, defining "to pluto" as "to demote or devalue someone or something", an example being "as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet."[42]

Answer 5

Pluto is now called a dwarf planet, to be a planet it is said, the object "has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit" Pluto is part of an asteroid belt so could not qualify. the conference that made this decision is thought to be unfair because those voting were only a small majority of professional astronomers from around the world. an important point also arose that earth shares its space with 10,000 asteroids so why are we a planet?

Answer 6

The world's top astronomers, or at least a body representing them as there is a lot of dissent, have decided that Pluto is too small to be a planet and it has been downgraded to a dwarf planet.

It's smaller than our moon and is just on the outskirts of the oort cloud which has led them to conclude that it is actually a regular shaped asteroid which has been brought closer within the orbit of the sun. It is actually closer to the sun than Neptune at times.

What's happening in 2012 and 2015?

Answer 7

I don't myself but it's hard to get it out of my head not being a planet b/c thats what I've been told since 1st grade programed into my head. Sadly the media is also trying to distract use other matters besides pluto u know Anna Nicoles death, the custity battle, Lindsey Lohan stuff. It's almost as if they no longer cared that human being were being killed b/c every single day I hear news of someone dying. I guess there trying to make the news less depressing. Good thing I've been watching local news since before kindergarden other wise I may not know anything about the world.

Answer 8

I agree, but the size is much smaller than the other planets and is the furthest planet in our Solar System. It may not even be a planet; it may be just a rock which has somehow got it's own gravity to get it's own moon and has floated close to Neptune and caught orbit.

Maybe in about 50 or 60 years, Neptune and Pluto will collide, causing Pluto and Neptune to get destroyed. It might even get too fast and just go back into space, after millions of years in the Solar System.

Answer 9

The solar system has loads of large bodies orbitting the sun - many of them too small to be considered planets. Astronomers and scientists had to redefine the definition of a planet after discovering so many new bodies - and Pluto did not fit the new criteria.

Answer 10

pluto does not meet the definition of a planet. pluto is only composed of asteroid type material that is orbiting our sun by the force of gravity. pluto is so far out that, it would be compared to a golf ball 1 thousand miles away from any spot on earth. asteroids meet more of the definitions of planets then pluto. the scientific community is right in they're decision to downgrade pluto to non-planet status