Pluto - the Planet that Isn't a Planet
- Poor Pluto! Once it was classified as the solar system's ninth planet. Now astronomers have decreed that it is no longer a real planet,
just a Dwarf Planet.
- Pluto has its moon Charon to blame for its change in status; one of the rules an object must pass to be classified as a planet is that it must have
cleared a path of all "large objects." Charon, compared to Pluto, is much to massive to be considered a "small object."
- Charon is large enough that as Charon and Pluto orbit each other, the center of that orbit does not even lie within Pluto.
- Pluto is sometimes outside of Neptune's orbit, sometimes inside.
- Pluto's mass is less than one percent of Earth's mass.
- Pluto is smaller than seven of the solar system's moons, including our own. The other six are Ganymede, Titan, Callysto, Io, Europa and Triton.
"The Solar System" is written by Douglas Twitchell, and hosted at The Problem Site.
Contents copyright 2009 by Douglas Twitchell. Contents of this page may not be reproduced without permission of the author. For information on using
this site in a classroom situation, please visit the Teachers page.
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