Is pluto still a planet?

Answer 1

No. Pluto no longer meets the requirements to be a planet, so it got booted out of the club.

Doug

Answer 2

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).

Answer 3

One official international astronomical association has voted to delete it from the list of planets because it is smaller than some objects we classify as asteroids. Many astronomers disagree with that action, and even that association may change its mind at its next annual meeting. They disagree because Pluto is in orbit much farther in than the Oort Cloud, where most of the asteroids are, and so fits the pattern of a planet. There is no official size for a body to be declared a planet.

Answer 4

Pluto is not Technically a planet but most people (like me) still consider it a planet

Answer 5

As of now the scientists say it is a dwarf planet. You can believe what you want though, because the scientists are always changing what they say. It's kind of like make up your mind! Isn't it?

Answer 6

Recently scientists just classified it as a dwarf planet.

Answer 7

Well, technically the scientists say its not classified as a "real" planet anymore. Its now known as a "Dwarf" planet.

...Yeah, odd I know.

Answer 8

Brenda - between you and me - yes it is

those other idiots don't think so - but we know better!

best of luck

just hope no one tells Pluto

Answer 9

It is not considered one of the now eight planets.

Answer 10

no. it's not... it was as dwarf plannet...but now nit's not even concidered a plannet... it's to small, and the other things on and around pluto make it not. You can research it on google... very intresting things.. =)