What Does It Take to Be a Planet? And Why Pluto Isn’t A Planet

There once was a time the solar system consisted of nine planets but in 2006 the unthinkable happened. We lost the beloved planet Pluto and gained a whole new way to classify celestial objects and our lives never been the same.

Pluto had a rough go as a planet. He was the runt of the solar system always in the back of the line and then he was kicked out of the planet club, poor Pluto.

As of 2006, there are three criteria a celestial body has to meet to be considered a planet. Pluto meets two of them, he has enough mass and gravity to hold a spherical shape and orbits the Sun but he does not clear the neighbourhood around his orbit.

The eight other planets are gravitationally dominants meaning there are no celestial bodies in their orbital paths. But this is not the case for Pluto, so he got reclassified as a dwarf planet.

Good news is Pluto isn’t alone there are several other celestial bodies that are also members of dwarf planet squad. This motley crew is full of shapes sizes and colours. One dwarf planet called Haumea looks like a potato with a hoop.



Since 2006 Pluto and his companions have been the centre of a lot of space drama. Some astronomers disagree with the new definition of a planet and believe Pluto should be called back up to big leagues. But regardless of what happens one thing is for sure, Pluto will always be our favourite planet that once was you go little Pluto.

Tell us about which astronomical phenomena you want to learn more about in comment section.

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