Pluto Loses the Status as A Planet
Salam and hello everyone. Just stumble at Knizam blog and read about his latest post regarding this last planet in our solar system. So as the title above, yes, Pluto already loses the status as a planet. About 2,500 scientists meeting at Prague have come into a conclusion that Pluto is not a planet. The result came out after the scientists have considered some reasons to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.
The researchers said Pluto failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets.
Read more details about the news here.
The scientists agreed that for a celestial body to qualify as a planet:
- it must be in orbit around the Sun
- it must be large enough that it takes on a nearly round shape
- it has cleared its orbit of other objects
Pluto was automatically disqualified because its highly elliptical orbit overlaps with that of Neptune. It will now join a new category of dwarf planets.
So, from now on, Pluto will be categorised as a dwarf planet. So what’s dwarf planet?
A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity but which has not cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals and is not a satellite. More explicitly, it has to have sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces in order to assume a hydrostatic equilibrium and acquire a near-spherical shape.
More details about dwarf planet here.
The decision to strip Pluto of its status as a planet means all science textbooks need to update and describe that Pluto is no longer a planet and has been categorized as a dwarf planet. More, the solar system now only have 8 major planetary bodies.
To simplify this, the new solar system is as in the image below.
Hoho, actually this post is just for information purposes only and for your general knowledge. So, update your current knowledge about the solar system now, no more 9 planets, its just 8 now.
Probably related posts:
- Movie Review : Cicakman 2 Planet Hitam (The Black Planet)
- Partial Solar Eclipse on 26 January 2009 at Malaysia
so the whole earth’s schools have to change their science subject to accommodate this deletion of pluto hehe
johnny ongs last blog post..Controversial Arrests in Malaysia
@johnny ong, ya2..need to update otherwise there will misinformation about the latest solar system.hehe
Not so fast! Only 424 members of the IAU (not 2,500), which constitute about four percent of the organization, voted in favor of the new definition that excludes Pluto. Most who voted are not planetary scientists while conversely, most planetary scientists are not IAU members. The new planet definition was immediately rejected by 300 professional astronomers led by one of the leading Pluto experts in the world, Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. Stern accurately described the new planet definition as “sloppy science that would never pass peer review.” It is sloppy and makes no sense because it states that dwarf planets are not planets at all. Also, it defines objects solely by where they are while ignoring what they are. Nobody should change any textbooks yet, as this definition is not likely to stand. A better choice, advocated by many planetary scientists, is to keep the term planet as broad as possible to include any object in hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning it has enough self gravity to pull itself into a round shape, that orbits a star. Objects in hydrostatic equilibrium, such as Pluto, Ceres, Eris, and MakeMake, have geophysical processes just like the bigger planets and unlike the shapeless, geologically inert asteroids. We can then distinguish types of planets by use of subcategories such as terrestrial planets, gas giants, ice giants, dwarf planets, super Earths, hot Jupiters, etc., with more new categories likely to come as new discoveries are made. Objects that do not dominate their orbits would fall into the dwarf planet category but would still be considered a subclass of planets. That means we now have 13,not 8 planets in our solar system, with more likely to come. This is a far better classification scheme that recognizes the incredible diversity among planets both in this solar system and in others.
Laurel Kornfelds last blog post..Two Years Later: Not Gone, Not Forgotten
@Laurel Kornfeld, thanks laurel for your impressive explaination and information regarding the news. i really appreciate that.