The new rule states that a planet not only must orbit the sun, but must be large enough to assume a nearly round shape. Also, it must "clear the neighborhood around its orbit."
Pluto, whose oblong orbit overlaps Neptune's, did not meet the new requirement and thus reducing the solar system to eight planets.
It was either they kick Pluto out, or introduce more into the solar system which includes Ceres, the largest asteroid, Charon, Pluto's largest moon and 2003 UB313, an icy body more than twice as far from the Sun as Pluto and a little bigger.
And so the decision was to have Pluto kick out and form a new category for these smaller "planets" called Dwarf Planets...
Weird rules.. why re-catalog our solar system into the "giants" and the "dwarfs"? Even in the universe of planets and stars, there's elitism, promotion and demotion, meeting requirements and getting into the top list. Life's kinda hard all around huh?
Read more: Here
Technorati Tags: Pluto, Planets, Dwarf planets, Solar system
2 comments:
Peace! I have a question: if the criterion that got Pluto kicked off the planet list is that it didn't "clear its orbital block," because it crosses Neptune's orbit, then why isnt't Neptune off too, for not clearing Pluto?
*rolls eyes* humans do all sorts of stuff... ah well, anything to satisfy ourselves. Pluto will still be pluto, i don't think it will be bothered whether or not it is in the solar system..
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