No longer a planet and left out in the cold, Pluto, it turns out, may have had hot beginnings Pluto, the icy dwarf planet hanging out in the Kuiper Belt, may well have been hot when it formed and could have supported a subsurface liquid ocean early in its development. According to a study published in Nature Geoscience, the origins of the no-longer-ninth-planet's chemical interactions between these oceans and the rocky …
"They went on to say that Pluto and other large dwarf planets"
Just a leettle bit curious as to when a large dwarf stops being a dwarf and starts being not a dwarf?
When you read about Pluto it certainly has all the hallmarks of a planet; possible oceans, dunes, blue skies and an atmosphere.
This is worth a look; https://www.space.com/43-pluto-the-ninth-planet-that-was-a-dwarf.html
The IAU definition is: is in orbit around the Sun, has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium (a nearly round shape), and has "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit. Pluto fails the last of these.
If you remove the last requirement then Pluto becomes a planet again ... but so do very many other objects, perhaps a hundred or so. So I think the idea is to keep the number of things we call 'planets' fairly small while having some criteria other than 'Joe says it's a planet' for what a planet is.
But it's just words: Pluto doesn't care what we call it.
Dues not paid, so no planetary status for you, even if we have to change the rules repeatedly to exclude you. Just because you are round, have a moon, are geologically active, orbit the sun instead of a star you have no claim. You are an ex-planet just like the exoplanets. Rules are rules.
I was really hurt when you decided to expel me from the gang, making up some arbitrary rule to justify it. Ever since then I've been living a lonely life, shunned by those that I once thought were my friends.
NOW you find me interesting and want to come over and get to know me a bit more??
Too late I'm hurt now. You can all Bugger Off - I don't need any of you.
Everything about Pluto's demotion screams prejudice.
They say it's not a planet because it's not "cleared its orbital neighbourhood" and yet they let Neptune join the club when Pluto is in Neptune's orbital neighbourhood.
Also, if earth has cleared its orbital neighbourhood, why are we looking for asteroids that could wipe us out?
if earth has cleared its orbital neighbourhood, why are we looking for asteroids that could wipe us out?
Because Earth has cleared its orbit. All these asteroids we're looking out for are in orbits that happen to cross Earth's orbit. Occassionally, they cross Earth's orbit just as Earth is getting to the same point.
Earth also has several "moonlets", asteroids locked in Lagrangian orbits. So not so much with the orbital clearance as a category for planethood. Also how does clearing an orbit work for planethood when you consider planetary rings? Is Saturn not a planet then? Demoting Pluto was arbitrary and capricious, which is why they waited until most of those present went to lunch before forwarding the motion.
Who cares, a Dwarf Planet is still a Planet. It's right there in the name. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called Gas Giant Planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are called Rocky Planets. Pluto, Charon, and their Trans-Neptunian fellows can be called Dwarf Planets or Ice Planets or Banana Planets for all I care. They are there, they are interesting, and I don't care what "label" some committee decides to stick on them. Someday these committee members will wake up to that fact that the real world doesn't fit into convenient little pigeonholes, that it is in fact all just infinite shades of {insert-favourite-colour-here}, and they have all been wasting their time trying to categorise the universe. No matter how hard you try, it's impossible to tidy up the universe. It's just inherently messy, and wonderful.
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