• Question: why is pluto not a real planet anymore?

    Asked by anon-210508 to Hannah on 13 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Hannah Dalgleish

      Hannah Dalgleish answered on 13 Mar 2019: last edited 13 Mar 2019 2:19 pm

      Pluto is now a dwarf planet. There are three rules which define a planet as a planet:
      1. The object must be in orbit around the Sun.
      2. The object must be massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity.
      3. It must have cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

      While Pluto manages to do the first two successfully, unfortunately it fails the third. Since Pluto isn’t big enough for it’s gravity to attract all the smaller objects close to it, we no longer call Pluto a planet. 🙁
      It is pretty to look at though!

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