Should Pluto be changed back to just a regular planet?

Question

I think that pluto will always be considered a planet. Thats just one opinion, I want to here yours.

Answer 1

The scientists' main reason for the switch is Pluto's tiny size; with a diameter of approximately 1,420 miles ( 2,280 kilometers) it is six times smaller than Earth, and smaller than seven of the solar system's moons.

Pluto's orbit is unlike any other planet. It is the only planet to travel an elliptical orbit, and uncharacteristically crosses the orbit of its closest planetary neighbor, Neptune. This means that for 20 years of its 248-year orbit around the sun it is not the most distant object in the solar system.

Despite its unusual characteristics, Pluto's status as a planet was solid until 1992, when David Jewitt and J. Luu of the University of Hawaii discovered a strange object called 1992 QB1. QB1 is a small icy body, similar in size to an asteroid, orbiting one and a half times further from the sun than Neptune.

QB1 was the first clue that more objects than Pluto might populate the distant reaches of the solar system. Since 1992 nearly one hundred objects like QB1 have been found. They are thought to be similar to Pluto in composition, consisting primarily of ice and rock.

This swarm of Pluto-like objects beyond Neptune is known as the Kuiper Belt, named after Gerard Kuiper, who first proposed that such a belt existed.

Astronomers estimate that there are at least 35,000 Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) greater than 62 miles (100 kilometers) in diameter. Pluto is practically indistinguishable from other objects in the Kuiper Belt. Aside from its large size, the only real difference is Pluto's reflectivity, which makes it much brighter than other KBOs.

Answer 2

Pluto should have never been a planet. There is many things that make it a dwarf planet. First the orbit doesn't match up with all the other planets it actually crosses Neptunes orbit. Another reason it that all the outer planets are huge and have rings, moons, and cleared there orbit path. Pluto has 1 moon almost the same size as it, No rings, and hasn't cleared the orbit path it hits comets every year. It should not be a planet!

Answer 3

I don't think so. While I, as well as you, was brought up with Pluto as a planet, the astronomers had a problem with the discovery of other large masses beyond Neptune. They opted to restrict planets to those masses that revolved around the sun in the planetary plane. Pluto and the other masses are highly tilted off this plane.

So, lift your drinks on high a shed a tear for Pluto, the ex-planet. Pluto, we hardly knew ye.

Answer 4

I don't consider it a planet but it's just a definition so it really doesn't make a big difference. I just don't like how its orbit isn't in the same plane with the other planets and that there is another rock out there, similar and larger than pluto, that isn't considered a planet.

Answer 5

Definitely not.
Saying "Pluto will always be a planet to me" is like saying "The Earth will always be flat and the Sun will revolve around it to me."

Answer 6

The be conscious 'planet' as utilized by potential of the astronomers could desire to have a definition that each and one and all astronomers agree upon. The be conscious is utilized in lots of medical discussions (as an occasion, theories on how planets style). The international Astronomical Union determines what definitions are utilized in medical discussions approximately astronomy. in case you establish to place in writing a paper to communicate a medical element, and prefer to be understood by potential of different astronomers, then do no longer call Pluto a planet. It does not meet the standards to be reported as a planet (no longer without qualifier in front of the be conscious -- it particularly is okay to call it a dwarf planet or a minor planet, or a planetoid). in case you're only having a coffee-break verbal substitute including your acquaintances, circulate forward, call it a planet. the traditional dictionary definition is large sufficient to permit this. --- while Pluto replaced into got here upon, astronomers have been finding for the explanation why Neptune's orbit looked perturbed. They thought Pluto replaced into responsible. if so, then Pluto could desire to be very large. easily a planet, with an impact on the orbits of different planets. WIth time, we discovered that Neptune's obvious perturbations are no longer as large as we had thought (maximum have been purely uncertainties in till now calculations). every time we had of undertaking to degree Pluto, the outcomes have been smaller and smaller. At one element, we found out it replaced into smaller than Earth, then smaller than Mercury. Now all of us be attentive to that it particularly is barely a million/6 the mass of our Moon. besides, we are beginning off to locate different comparable gadgets, on comparable orbits. The final time this got here approximately (1850s) is while we got here upon that Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Juno (then accepted as 4 planets) have been basically the bigger specimen of an entire new type of gadgets: the minor planets. The 4 planets have been reclassified as minor planets. history repeats itself.

Answer 7

Pluto is a planet no matter what anyone says.

Answer 8

I think that Pluto's re-classification is an arbitrary and elitist concept. As far as size they chose to define what a planet is, it is an arbitrary number!

The notion of "being surrounded by other planets" or not is very vague too...

Most importantly, Pluto has a historic significance and it shouldn't be ignored. Re-classifying it only leads to the general public's confusion and of course, a publicity stunt.

Answer 9

i didnt know it wasnt but i think it should always be a planet - where would our little models of the solar system and the planets be without dear ol pluto!!

Answer 10

It never did change in the first place. it always has been a planet, and always will be.