2007-06-14 11:17:42 · 8 answers · asked by tracyterry 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It's not a white dwarf, since that is a type of star.
It was actually been reclassified as a drawf planet last year after the discovery of other similar sized bodies in the outer reaches of our solar system.
Very recently, astromoners discovered a larger drawrf planet with its own moon, so Pluto is no longer even the largest dwarf planet.
2007-06-14 11:23:13 · answer #1 · answered by Ali 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Pity poor Pluto, the puny former planet is facing yet another indignity. Demoted from planethood a year ago into a new category of dwarf planet, it now turns out that it isn't even the biggest one of those.
"This is sort of Pluto's last stand," joked Emily L. Schaller of California Institute of Technology, co-author of a report in Thursday's issue of the journal Science.
When the International Astronomical Union redefined planets last year, it created the new subcategory dwarf planets, and Pluto was thought to be the largest in that group.
Planetary astronomy professor Michael E. Brown and graduate student Schaller found otherwise while studying Dysnomia, the moon of Eris, another dwarf planet.
Using the Keck Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope they were able to calculate the movement of Dysnomia and, with that information, calculate the mass of Eris at 27 percent more than Pluto. But even though Eris tops Pluto, Earth is still 360 times more massive.
"Pluto and Eris are essentially twins — except that Eris is slightly the pudgier of the two," Brown said.
Eris, by the way, is named for the Greek goddess of, among other things, rivalry.
2007-06-14 18:22:02 · answer #2 · answered by zippythewonderslugohio 4 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Pluto is a Kuiper Belt obejct, along with about seven others of comparable size. Its orbit goes within that of Neptune and its average orbit does not obey the Bode-Titus law.
2007-06-14 18:23:39 · answer #3 · answered by Uncle Al 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. Pluto is smaller then a white dwarf so it is no longer considered a planet. Any celectal hunk of rock smaller then a white dwarf is not a planet.
2007-06-14 18:26:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
No. It is called a dwarf planet, not a white dwarf.
2007-06-14 18:21:13 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
No it's now a minor planet and actually not the largest.
2007-06-14 18:21:40 · answer #6 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
no but they are trrying to make it a planet again
2007-06-14 19:17:44 · answer #7 · answered by corn 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
No...it's technically a "white dwarf" now
2007-06-14 18:19:44 · answer #8 · answered by Jaguar88 2 · 0⤊ 5⤋