There once was a 9th planet in our solar system. Its name was Pluto, and it was a "fact" that it was a planet...until it wasn't. Join us as we explore whether Pluto should still be a planet. 8. The Life and Times Of Pluto
Before we fully dive into why Pluto should STILL be a planet...we need to talk about the "Fakeout" that occurred for many decades. Meaning, the finding, "labeling" and then unlabeling of Pluto as a planet. Sound good? Cool.
So, like many objects in the sky itself, Pluto has been around for an undetermined amount of time, for the sake of argument let's say billions of years. However, just like many objects in the sky, it wasn't noticed by humanity for a very, VERY long time. In fact it wasn't discovered until 1930 via Clyde Tombaugh.
Though to be clear, it wasn't a "random" find like certain other things in the universe. Rather, in 1846, people who were observing Neptune noted that there were some "discrepancies" in the orbit of Neptune that suggest that there was another planet nearby that they didn't know about. Fast forward to 1930 and at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombaugh found Pluto. Mystery solved.
The irony was that after taking notes about Pluto in regards to its mass and gravity, it was found that there was no way it was affecting Neptune's gravity in the way people believed it was at first. That didn't matter though because further study of Neptune seemed to fix all the beliefs about the discrepancies.
Things only got better for Pluto when later on it appeared to have a moon orbiting it in the form of Charon. This was important because it meant that Pluto was big enough and had enough gravity to make something orbit it. A true classification of a planet.
For many decades, 6 in fact, Pluto was a happy member of the solar system. 9 planets orbiting 1 sun. Everything was great...until it wasn't.
7. The Fall Of Pluto
Ok, so, what the heck went wrong? How did we go for decades thinking that Pluto was a planet and yet somehow...it's not anymore? That would be because of the 1990's (already a tumultuous period of history...), where scientists started to doubt that Pluto was a planet at all.
But how exactly does that happen? How does one decide that a planet is "not a planet". Well in the case of Pluto, that would have to do with location. Specifically its location in regards to both Neptune, and a belt of asteroids known as the Kuiper belt. You see, these are a string of asteroids, at least 1500 at last count in 2014, more than likely many more now, and they're held in place in part by Neptune's gravity.
Why does that matter? Well, the Kuiper belt is just outside the space that Pluto is in. What's more, based on imagery and estimates, some of these asteroids are not only planet-shaped, but they're planet-sized. Some of them are even felt to be bigger than Pluto. So by that token, if there are asteroids in this belt that could be planets themselves...and they're bigger and have more massive than Pluto, and have an orbit just like Pluto or close to it...why should Pluto be a planet?
This may sound like baseless accusations and such, but the scientific community had a different opinion on the matter. Mainly, they all started to wonder if Pluto honestly should be called a planet, or a "sub-planet" or a "minor planet". Basically any adjective you can think of in order to make it clear that Pluto wasn't a full planet. Things culminated in many ways back in 2000. The Rose Center for Earth and Space, home of the Hayden Planetarium, categorized Pluto in one of its exhibits as a sub-planet. “There is no scientific insight to be gained by counting planets,” said the Hayden Planetarium’s director, Neil de Grasse Tyson, “eight or nine — the numbers don’t matter.”
Tyson if you don't know is a BIG deal in the scientific and astronomy community, so having him say it doesn't matter if Pluto is considered a planet or not is a big blow.
Finally, on August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union’s meeting in Prague led to a vote as to whether Pluto should be named a planet or something lesser. They decided to make a new classification, "Dwarf Planet", and thus Pluto was a true planet no more.
6. Should We Really Care If It's A Planet Or Not?
Let's be honest with ourselves, should we really care if Pluto isn't a planet or not? Does it truly affect our lives if there are 8 or 9 planets or not? Does the Earth literally or figuratively respond to whether there is another planet revolving out there in space?
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