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IIRC, a planet has to clear its orbit (absorb or chase away all rivals) and Pluto can't do that.
by BMc2020 5y ago
IIRC, a planet has to clear its orbit (absorb or chase away all rivals) and Pluto can't do that.
- vba616 5y agoI realize there is a mathematical definition of "clear its orbit" which produces the desired conclusion. However, I happened to be reading about Lagrange points and how objects cluster in the L4 and L5 points and I said to myself "...waaaaait a second, all those planets with Trojan asteroids haven't cleared their orbits in the plain English meaning of the phrase!" Including Earth, Mars, Jupiter... You can't prove a definition wrong, but you can make fun of it.