i think plutoe should be a planet, dont you?

Answer 1

Technically, Pluto has been reclassified simply due to size and composition. There is no special "status" associated with being designated a planet - it is simply an astronomical classification scheme.

Answer 2

Pluto.
When Pluto was first discovered it was thought by some to be bigger than the Earth. Since then better measurements have shown it to be much, much smaller. Recently more objects about the same size have been found. They were really too small to be called planets but since they were around the same size as Pluto, either they had to be called planets or Pluto had to be demoted to be consistent. At the recent meeting of the International Astronomical Union the non-unanimous vote was that it was no longer to be called a planet.

Scientists reclassify things all the time as better information comes in. Usually they reclassify bacteria, plants or sometimes animals or rocks. This almost never makes the news even though it is more likely to be important to us because these things are here on Earth. Pluto is a very long way away and as recently as 1929 nobody even knew it was there.

The only people who have a right to have an opinion on this are those with detailed knowledge of the solar system and astronomical classification schemes. What anybody else thinks actually does not count.

Answer 3

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

no, this was the right thing to do, believe me. this does not change anything about pluto or the solar system. this just corrects the mistake of classifying pluto as a planet initially. pluto does orbit the sun, is ball-shaped and is not a satellite, but it does not have an isolated orbit (a bunch of other similar bodies have similar orbits.) so it is not a planet.

i have been waiting for this since i was about ten when i learned 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. i feel somewhat satisfied, but i don't know how long this will drag on tho. many planetary astronomers are satisfied that the definition is not rigorous enuff. i can accept that the definition is flawed, but i can not accept that "134340 pluto" is a planet.

this same thing happened has happened before. in 1801, an astronomer found a body orbiting the sun between the orbits of mars and jupiter and thought it was a planet. astronomers finally stopped classifying them as planets after they found several other bodies with similar orbits, and no one thinks ceres, pallas, juno, and vesta are planets today.

incidentally, "134340 pluto" was never a moon of neptune. neptune did capture triton. this is why triton has a retrograde orbit. many astronomers consider pluto and charon to be a binary system, but two small bodies orbit that system. they are called nix and hydra.

Answer 4

If you insist on calling Pluto a planet, then we are going to end up with hundreds if not thousands of "planets" in our solar system. While I fully understand the nostalgic nature of retaining planetary status for Pluto, frankly, it's not very practical to do so. We'll see how the debate goes (because it ain't over yet). Perhaps they will find some way to include Pluto but to limit an onslaught of similar bodies being included on the list.

Answer 5

Yeah, but if Pluto is a planet, then what do we call all those other things beyond Pluto? Some of them are bigger than Pluto.

Are we going to allow 18 planets in the solar system? How about 180? 2000? When does it stop?

Answer 6

Well, if this can serve as a consolation, you should listen to this song in youtube: Mr. B - Pluto (You'll Always Be a Planet to Me).

Here's the beginning of the song:

"Pluto, Pluto you'll always be a planet to me
Way out there, you orbit our Sun
You're so far away you're trans-Neptunian
Discovered in 1930
For 76 years, a planetary body
In 2006, they changed their minds
Called you a dwarf no longer one of nine..."

I think the song tells the story better than I would do.

Answer 7

And what qualification have you got where you can classify astro objects?

What do you know about it?

You should be careful in life not to show your ignorance. Only expound on what you really know about.

If your question had been "why is Pluto not a planet?" we would all be happy, but just like a lot of ignorant people on this forum who come on and say things like "I think men never went to the moon", when they know nothing about the space program, this is not an area, like religion, where you can express an opinion.

Either you know, or you don't know.

Re-classification goes on all the time in science - it is all part of the gradual accumulation of knowledge.

Answer 8

They have just created a new sub-category of planet. First there were just the terrestrial planets, like the Earth and Mars, and the gaseous planets, like Jupiter. Now there's a third category, the dwarf planets. I like the fact that we are not generalizing the definiton of a planet. The universe is too expansive for our definitions to apply to everything.

Answer 9

Plutoe? Perhaps Dan Quale should name this planet?

Answer 10

it is a planet....just broken up into little pieces