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This is like twisting the knife after we stabbed it in Pluto's back, if you ask me.
by jimmytucson 14y ago
This is like twisting the knife after we stabbed it in Pluto's back, if you ask me.
- sp332 14y agoPluto was reclassified as a Kuiper belt object because there are lots of those and it fit that category better than it fit in the category of planets.
- lmm 14y agoPut Pluto, Vesta, Mercury and Mars side by side. They look pretty similar; a lot more similar than Mars and Mercury do to Jupiter and Saturn.
- lonnyk 14y agoIt's not about looks. There are 3 criteria to being classified as a planet[1]: * Orbits the sun * Massive enough for its gravity to make it all the way around * 'Cleared its neighborhood' of smaller objects arounds its orbit [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_planet
- sp332 14y agoMars has an atmosphere, Vesta is mostly rock not ice, and they are all in the wrong orbits to be Kuiper Belt objects. edit: Don't worry, Pluto is also classified as a dwarf planet, just like Eris.
- Sharlin 14y agoPluto has much more in common with Eris, Sedna, Quaoar, Makemake, and Haumea (and probably with dozens or hundreds of yet-to-be-discovered similarly-sized icy bodies beyond Neptune's orbit) than with the rocky bodies of the inner system.