Pluto Has Been Outsourced

Pluto’s planet hood has always been belittled since the day it was discovered 76 years ago. On August 24th 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), an assembly of 2,500 professional Astronomers from 75 countries, convened to debate the definition of a Planet. Their decision was years in the making with much fuss and banter between those Pro Pluto and Anti Pluto camps for some years. In the last day of the summit the 424 astronomers who decided to stick around, all voted on a drafted resolution proclaiming that any celestial body (from a gas giant to a huge rock) who opts for the celestial title must meet some basic requirements: 

•It must be in orbit around the sun.
•It has a sufficient mass for its own gravity to overcome its natural composure and become a spheroid.
•It has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. 

Does this mean you can launch Louie Anderson into orbit between Earth and Venus and well soon have nine planets again? Perhaps. Yet the definition for a planet, of which there was previously none, has been questioned for several years ever since the discovery of the lauded “10th planet”, UB313, discovered in 1999, was pushing the boundaries of what most astronomers considered the rightful definition of a planet. Essentially their question was “If we can name this unknown ball of ice a planet then what cant we name as a planet?” The asteroid Ceres, which was once a planet but was demoted in the 1800’s, was being given consideration for the position again recently. Then when talk of naming Pluto’s moon, Charon, a planet, scientists world over put their foot down, the line had to be drawn somewhere. An agreement was made that we cannot have 11 planets. Giving planet status to the 2 considered originally would leave open the invitation for hundreds of more cold rocks in the solar system to be applying for planet hood. So the IAU also drafted another resolution, outlining criteria for a second class of celestial bodies. 

These Dwarf/Minor planets are celestial bodies that:

The eight official planets and the three new minor planets.

Credit: Martin Kornmesser

Copyright: The International Astronomical Union