After eight long years, there may finally be some hope for fans of the former planet, Pluto.
Yes, you read that right. It’s been eight years. We’ve been living in a solar system with only eight planet for eight years.
Still many Pluto supporters are undeterred, and are still fighting the good fight to get it reinstated.
In fact, as recently as last month the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics conducted their own vote on Pluto’s planet status, and if it were up to them, Pluto would be a planet again today.
Unfortunately it’s not.
However, when conducting their vote they did use the definition of a planet created by those who do have the power to reinstate Pluto.
For those of you who aren’t experts in the field, a planet, by the International Astronomical Union’s definition, meets the following criteria
- is in orbit around the Sun,
- is round or close enough
- is bigger than anything else in its orbit. Which basically means if another planet decides to cruise in its lane, it won’t be a fair fight.
As you might have guessed, Pluto has some trouble with the last qualifier. So basically it got booted because it’s not the toughest rock on the block.
Although, seeing as it’s stuck around for 4 billion years or so, and survived the humiliation of being called a dwarf planet, I think it’s proved it can hold its own.
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More on the Story: CNN
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