• Question: Why is Pluto now a dwarf planet ?

    Asked by 552tund46 to Gemma, Robert on 10 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by 364tund46.
    • Photo: Robert Lees

      Robert Lees answered on 10 Nov 2015:

      Pluto has not changed at all, the people that decide what is a planet and what isn’t a planet has re-classified Pluto as a dwarf planet, because it only fits 2 of the 3 rules of being a planet:

      – It orbits the Sun (1)
      – It has enough mass to be in a nearly round shape (2)
      – HOWEVER, it hasn’t cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit of the Sun (3)

      Pluto sits in the Kuiper Belt and there are lots of other objects here that haven’t been cleared enough to make Pluto a planet, but it’s still Pluto, poor old Pluto!

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