The Eight Planets

With that Pluto has been stricken from the planet list because it dose not “clear the neighborhood around its orbit” this is because the orbit of Pluto crosses that of
Neptune’s.  If that is the case why then is Neptune still a planet? It overlaps Pluto’s orbit.

Pluto is still however being called a dwarf planet under the new definition of a dwarf planet.

“(2) A dwarf planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape², (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.”

Apparently these dwarf planets are still not planets; making the list of Sol’s planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and possibly Neptune.

It seems to me that the new decision on what is a planet was made more for history and culture then for science, because you could still find a celestial body that is in orbit around the Sun with mass sufficient to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape and has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit that is still smaller than Pluto, and must by definition be called a full blown planet.  So how is it that we call Pluto a dwarf planet, and this smaller thing a full planet.

I thought that this was an interesting quote form the article I read on the subject.

He had argued that Pluto and similar bodies didn’t deserve planet status, saying that would “take the magic out of the solar system.”

This really just means that it was too hard for the astrologers to figure out our horoscopes with 12 planets to worry about.

Edit —

After rereading the new definition it struck me that it said a celestial body that is in orbit around the Sun (Sol I’m assuming) instead of a star. This could mean that a object orbiting another star could not then be a planet.

Later-

XR4-IT