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2007-03-13 16:38:16 · 24 answers · asked by Sara 1 in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

24 answers

yes, pluto is part of the solar system, but pluto is not a planet. 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, and it never was.

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.

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 not satisfied that the definition is 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 1800, 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 in about 1850 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

2007-03-13 16:49:42 · answer #1 · answered by warm soapy water 5 · 2 0

Is Pluto a planet???? Yes and no...

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 (Nix and Hydra).

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, hundreds???? 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).

2007-03-13 21:21:41 · answer #2 · answered by stargazergurl22 4 · 0 0

Strictly interpreting your question, yes. Every object in the solar system is included in the solar system.

Is Pluto considered a planet? No, not anymore. It's been downgraded to "planetoid" by an international body governing astronomical nomenclature.

This was not without controversy, but I think it's the right move. There are many other objects as big as or bigger than tiny Pluto that are not considered planets and never were.

2007-03-13 16:44:45 · answer #3 · answered by kozzm0 7 · 0 0

this is club in the image voltaic gadget isn't in question. What become being puzzled become it rather being a significant planet, and besides the reality that it has an ecosystem, a moon extra effective than 0.5 this is length and it orbits the sunlight independently, it falls short on a number of fronts. One is this is mass. Pluto is 500 cases much less huge than the Earth, making our very own moon a heavyweight via assessment. although, many asteroids have moons too, so having a extensive satellite tv for pc would not make Pluto a planet the two. Neither does having an ecosystem or orbiting the sunlight independently, there are moons orbiting Saturn, Neptune and Jupiter that have atmospheres too. this is orbit is rather elliptical and tilted 17 stages to the airplane all of the different planets stay in different than Mercury. maximum heavily, Pluto has no longer swept the place of this is orbit sparkling of alternative planetesimals, asteroids and comets. this is definitely one of a starting to be style of dwarf planets many times happening to exist during the image voltaic gadget, and hence Pluto is a planetesimal that did no longer get integrated into between the 8 significant planets.

2016-11-25 02:03:49 · answer #4 · answered by kimbler 3 · 0 0

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.It was thought to be bigger than the earth. But late it was proved to be smaller than our moon.Pluto is egg-shaped, and its orbit cuts that of Neptune's.

According to the rules created for planets,a planet must circle the sun, it must be large and round shaped, and it must clear the other objects from its orbit.Since Pluto does not match these rules it has been excluded from the planet group and is at present called the 'dwarf planet'.
Now a new resolution has been drafted which seek to include 2003UB313,the farthest known object in the solar system and nick- named "Xena"; Charon, Pluto's largest moon and the asteroid Ceres , which was a planet in the 1800s before it was demoted. Anew category of planets called 'plutons' has also been proposed which would include Pluto- like objects residing in the Kuiper- Belt. The new list of solar system includes Mercury ,Venus,Earth,Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon, and
2003 UB313.
Pluto is not to be demoted from its position as it meets the proposed new definition of a planet - any round object larger than 800 km in diameter that orbits the sun and has a mass roughly one- 12,000th that of the Earth.
Twelve more bodies including Varuna, Quosar, and Sedna, which are Pluto-like objects residing on the fringe of the solar system - are also being monitored by the IAU to consider their eligibility to be named as planets.

2007-03-17 07:03:03 · answer #5 · answered by kanya 5 · 0 0

The defination of planet ( by IAU) , which applies to solar system, defines that a planet is a body that orbits the Sun, large enough for its own gravity to make it round.Under this defination, Pluto doesn't qualify as a planet.
Pluto is a 'dwarf planet' under new category. As now, the solar system is considered to have 8 planets only.

2007-03-13 20:28:34 · answer #6 · answered by suriapandi s 2 · 0 0

Although Pluto is no longer considered a planet, it is certainly a part of the solar system - like the Earth, Jupiter, the various moons, asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun.

2007-03-14 03:39:57 · answer #7 · answered by Bharat 4 · 0 0

Yes, but it is not a planet anymore since it passes through the orbit of Neptune. Pluto is already a dwarf planet together with ceres, UB313. Absolutely, IT IS STILL A MEMBER OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM!

2007-03-13 23:51:38 · answer #8 · answered by iRock4Christ 2 · 0 0

In the solar system, yes, downgraded. Dwarf Planet, most textbooks will still include Pluto as a planet for a few more years, and then they will be changed to remove it.

2007-03-13 16:46:45 · answer #9 · answered by Fae Noisiv 3 · 0 0

Pluto is in the solar system. It is considered a minor planet now.

2007-03-13 16:48:19 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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