Cast your vote on Pluto at HighlightsKids.
February of 2010 marked the 80th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.
Ken Croswell: I would just like everyone to realize that Pluto is the 10th largest object that goes around the sun, and I think it deserves a little more respect than it’s received from certain Pluto-phobic astronomers.
Astronomer and author Ken Croswell told us that you can vote – in February of 2010 – on whether Pluto should be a planet. The magazine Highlights for Children is hosting the vote at HighlightsKids.com. In 2006, a vote of about 400 astronomers with the International Astronomical Union, or IAU, demoted Pluto from full planet to dwarf planet status. The new IAU planet definition mentions orbits.
Ken Croswell: Pluto is not a planet because Pluto crosses the orbit of Neptune, which is a no-no.
But Croswell said distant solar systems are now known with planets crossing each other’s orbits. He said other astronomers want to define planet as round, like Earth, due to self-gravity.
Ken Croswell: It would confer planet-hood not just on Pluto but on so many other things too, probably dozens – if not hundreds – of other objects in the solar system.
Croswell believes we should define a planet simply – as something that goes around the sun and has the diameter of Pluto or more. Cast your vote on Pluto at HighlightsKids.
Ken Croswell: Now, my own opinion as to what I think a planet is, I have a different definition, a much simpler definition of planet. I think we should just define a planet as something that goes around the sun and has the diameter of Pluto or more. By that definition, Pluto is a planet, and the solar system has 10 planets all together, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris. Discovered in 2005, Eris is farthest thing ever seen in our solar system. It’s nine billion miles from the Sun, three times farther than Pluto, almost 100 times farther from the sun than the Earth is, and Eris would be the 10th planet in our solar system.
who discover Pluto?
American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930.
Yes, Pluto is a planet. If it ain\’t broke don\’t fix it.
If we r not astro how can we vote,inst. we we’d behind u.
Pluto is a Planet,
Pluto is a Planet. Always has been, always will…no matter what the \”books\” say. Please don\’t take my Pluto away!
if it’s not a planet, then what the HELL is it!?!?
Pluto is now officially categorized as a “dwarf planet.” It’s the largest known of many small bodies in the outer solar system.
It has been a Planet all of my life and it continues to be as far as I am concerned.
It’s a doozey of a planet!
As a dynamic world with geology and weather, Pluto shows it has more in common with the other, bigger planets than it does with most Kuiper Belt Objects except the few large ones, which should be considered planets too. Most KBOs in Pluto’s orbital path are tiny and do not have these features. The new images of Pluto just released show that before making definitive classifications, we should first get the data and analyze it; otherwise, we are defining objects without knowing significant factors about them.
Laurel good point! Thank you!
i like it pluto……….
you kile it…………..
but
i like you……………
pluto is the smallest planet in univers….
any think live at pluto.
Pluto is a funny looking dog. :-)
I think self gravity with a moon or something as large as Pluto is a good definition.
Like most people, I learned that Pluto was a planet. What I didn’t learn, because I don’t think there was one, was the definition of what a planet is. Perhaps that would be the place to start.
That dispute about Pluto is a “very important”! Do you know that on our planet Earth ( on OUR! ) every minute some 20 children die around the world… At least 10 million kids in a year… Many of them really didn’t care about astronomy or Pluto because they simply wanted to eat!…
Everyone loves Pluto as a planet!
Pluto is a planet and it seems that one day the human foot to put on it …
Good website, lots of very helpful details.
pluto is not a planet i have to agree with you
I think Pluto classified as a dwarf planet isn’t incorrect. It is smaller than our moon by 700 miles in diameter.