New Criteria Means That Pluto Is Still Not A Planet

Pluto is still not considered to be an official planet, according to new proposed criteria.

First discovered in 1930, Pluto was initially deemed to be the ninth planet from the sun, but was stripped of its planethood a decade ago by the International Astronomical Union.

This was the result of the 2003 discovery of an object - named Eris - beyond Pluto that was larger than the ‘planet’ itself.

This led astronomers to discuss what actually constituted a planet meaning that poor old Pluto was relegated to ‘dwarf planet’ status due to its size and location in space.

Since then, many have called for Pluto to be reinstated as an official planet, especially following the incredible data and images that have been returned from NASA’s New Horizons probe which eventually reached the dwarf planet in July 2015 following a nine-year flight.

University of California astronomer Jean-Luc Margot claims that the current definition for what makes a planet is flawed and has proposed a new set of criteria, which is set to be published in the Astronomical Journal.

However, even if the suggested guidelines are accepted, Pluto still doesn’t quite have what it takes to be called an official planet. Sorry, Pluto.

Image credit: NASA/APL/SwRI

Via: ScienceAlert