COLUMBUS, Ga. — Did you know that Pluto is no longer considered a planet?
After years of intense debate, astronomers demoted Pluto as planet because it didn’t meet certain requirements.
From 1930 until 2006, Pluto sat comfortably beyond Neptune as the ninth planet in our solar system.
11 years ago on august 24th, 2006 the International Astronomical Union Downgraded the status of Pluto to a “dwarf planet.”
Dwarf planets are celestial bodies that only meet the first two criteria in the new definition of a planet.
There are currently five dwarf planets, but scientists expect more will be discovered over time.
The three criteria of the IAU for a full-sized planet are:
- It is in orbit around the sun.
- It has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium.
- It has “cleared the neighborhood” around its orbit.
Some fun facts about Pluto:
Pluto is about the size of the moon.
It takes approximately 248 earth years for Pluto to make one trip around the sun.
Pluto is so far away that it takes more than five hours for light from the sun to reach it and the sun’s light reaches earth in only eight minutes!
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