How many planets are there?
Eight planets, and three dwarf planets (for now).
Pluto was officially demoted to "dwarf planet" status
on August 24th by the International Astronomical Union, as
it does not meet all three criteria for being
considered a planet: it must orbit the Sun, it must be
big enough for gravity to squash it into a round ball,
and it must have cleared other things out of the way
in its orbital neighborhood.
Dwarf planets only need to meet the first two criteria.
Poor pluto.
Pluto was officially demoted to "dwarf planet" status
on August 24th by the International Astronomical Union, as
it does not meet all three criteria for being
considered a planet: it must orbit the Sun, it must be
big enough for gravity to squash it into a round ball,
and it must have cleared other things out of the way
in its orbital neighborhood.
Dwarf planets only need to meet the first two criteria.
Poor pluto.
posted by S. at 5:29 PM
1 Comments:
I miss pluto as well. I was sure that we'd end up having more planet not less after the conference. Alas it was not ment to be
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