There has been an ongoing question on whether Pluto is a planet or not. Some doubt that it’s a planet, because of its characteristics, such as its small size, and it being so far away from the sun. According to MIT, Pluto is indeed a planet. This is all thanks to the new draft of definition that defines what a planet is. The new draft definition, as what’s defined by International Astronomical Union (IAU) has two conditions that need to be satisfied, in order for an object to be a planet.

The new draft definition defined by the IAU, defines a planet as an object that orbits around a star, but the object itself must not be a star. The second condition is that the object must have enough mass, that is enough gravity to pull into a spherical shape.

Let’s get back to the question. Is Pluto a planet? To answer that, let’s get back to what a planet should be. Does Pluto satisfy the two conditions of it being a planet? The answer is Yes, along with dozens of other new planets that satisfy this new definition. Currently, there are three new candidates of planets, the three new proposed planets are Ceres, Charon, and 2003 UB313(This planet has not yet been assigned a real name).

Along with this new definition, IAU also defines a new category of planet, namely, “Plutons”. However, today’s post has been satisfied, so I’ll continue on the next post, and explain furthermore on what’s a “Plutons”, and how a planet would become a “Plutons”

Source from MIT