by Anura Guruge
on August 24, 2021
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Yes, the monumental decision by the ‘International Astronomical Union‘ (IAU) to reclassify ‘Pluto’ as a dwarf planet happened on August 24, 2006, as shown in the top image.
Time has flown. 15-years.
I do agree that Pluto had to be reclassified. As you can see from the bottom image we have ‘Eris‘ that is nearly as big as Pluto — & heavier. If Pluto remained a planet, then we would have to make Eris a planet too. But, as you can also see from the same image, both these bodies are relatively small — in that we have moons that are bigger! So, it did make sense to reclassify Pluto.
What hasn’t made any sense is that the IAU has NOT done anything else about dwarf planets since 2015. That is plain wrong & I will do a post on that soon.
For today, let’s just mark that it has been 15-years since Pluto ceased being a planet.
I am a diehard Plutonian.
No definition of “planet” other than “orbits the sun and is the size of Pluto or larger” can ever be acceptable.The IAU has to rectify their dwarfing error!
Louis,
I agree with you that the IAU has somewhat goofed with Dwarf Planets. Not sure your cut, ‘size of Pluto or larger’, will cut it. Size measured in terms of radius or mass? Plus, is Pluto a binary? IF so, what happens to size? I will do some additional posts on dwarfs & we can continue this discussion as we go along. More comments WELCOME. Thanks.