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Pluto is Not a Planet Anymore
Written By: Joseph Gillespie

Pluto, the long time occupant of the title "Ninth Planet in the Solar System" has been overnight demoted to not only being removed from the Solar System, but no longer considered a planet either. Hence forth, the Solar System has 8 planets, and Pluto isn't one of them.

Pluto has officially been demoted to a "Dwarf Planet" and future textbooks will no longer refer to it as a planet in the Solar System. The decision came today in Praque after a meeting consisting of around 2,500 scientists. The main reason for demoting Pluto is it's shaky orbit around the Sun, not consistent with the requirements to be deemed a full planet. Pluto takes a very elliptical orbit around the Sun, pulled away by Neptune, and according to researchers a true planet is large enough not to be affected by other gravitational pulls, and makes a circular orbit around the Sun.

Of course, the decision makers are well aware of the public disturbance this will cause. The Solar System has always contained 9 planets, and Pluto has always been one of them. "I have a slight tear in my eye today, yes; but at the end of the day we have to describe the Solar System as it really is, not as we would like it to be." said Professor Iwan Williams, chair of the IAU panel that has been working over recent months to define the term "planet". A strict definition of the term planet was deemed necessary after new telescope technology revealed new objects that rivaled Pluto in size. Without a solid definition of the word planet, these and other new discoveries could all be classified as planets, filling the Solar System with around 50 new planets! In order to eliminate this possibility, the IAU decided to officially define the word planet, and eliminate Pluto from the Solar System.

As of now, for an object to be deemd a full fledged planet, it must adhere to the following guidelines:

It must orbit around a sun.
It must be round or nearly round.
It must have an orbit clear of other objects. (This where Pluto mainly failed, as it often times become caught up with Neptune)

Since Pluto was unable to meet the third requirement, it was almost instantly deemed not a planet, and demoted to a "Dwarf Planet".

Pluto's status as a planet has actually been under contest for years. Pluto is very small for a planet, actually smaller than many moons in the Solar system, and it's shaky orbit have always made it questionable as to it's planetary status. In an other region of the Solar System, called the Kuiper Belt, scientists have in recent years been able to locate many objects which rival Pluto in size as well. As such, many scientists have often argued that Pluto would be better described among these distant icy objects, and not as a full planet. The straw that broke the camel's back was the discovery of an object called "2003 UB313" which actually dominates Pluto in terms of size. 2003 UB313 will also be designated a Dwarf Planet, with Pluto. Pluto's moon "Charon" and "Ceres" the largest Asteroid in the Solar System, will also be classified as Dwarf Planets. Pluto was named after the God of the Underworld in Roman Mythology, is 3.7 Billion miles from the Sun, and takes around 248 years to make on rotation around it. An unmanned US spacecraft, called "New Horizons" is due to fly by Pluto and the Kuiper Belt in 2015.

Last Modified: August 24th, 2006

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Comments on This Article:

stephanie
02 May 2008, 12:24

.....the facts are there pluto is not a planet its a dwarf planet now.

Amy
16 Apr 2008, 20:13

I still love you Pluto!!!!!!!!

scott ringrose
20 Feb 2008, 12:01

pluto sucks get rid of it

Nikki Ponsart
12 Feb 2008, 17:41

Hi Why is pluto not a planet anymore? My email is drp5897@yahoo.com

ms. breakDANZER
07 Jan 2007, 09:26

drop all the planets alive for pete's sake! if u wanna drop pluto, drop the sun first! (i mean literally...)

arshee_rcl_darkathena
07 Jan 2007, 09:20

well, all i could say is that we've known pluto like for life as a part of the "planetarial" club. well, maybe later on we'll find more planets in the future...

Danny
04 Oct 2006, 00:24

Since Pluto has been dropped as a planet, shouldn't Neptune be dropped also. It hasn't cleared its orbit of a small rock (namely the late planet Pluto).

bea
26 Sep 2006, 06:39

Atleast your a "dwarf planet"!

Sidhu Suresh
17 Sep 2006, 11:42

Poor pluto! I feel sorry for you.

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