Pluto Demoted
This is the tenth anniversary of the demotion of the planet
Pluto to that of a dwarf planet. On August 24th 2006 the astronomers
officially demoted Pluto from the status of a planet to that of a dwarf planet.
The vote involved just 424 astronomers who remained for the last day of a
meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague. The vote
caused a lot of controversy within the astronomical community.
The astronomer’s decided to establish three main categories
of objects in our solar system.
1. Planets: The eight worlds from Mercury to Neptune.
2. Dwarf Planets: Pluto and any other round object that
"has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and is not a
satellite."
3. Small Solar System Bodies: All other objects orbiting the
Sun.
Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 there had been many
people who doubted that Pluto should ever have been described as a planet.
However public opinion was very much in favour of keeping Pluto as a planet
until 2006.
Although now a dwarf planet for 10 years there are still
many people who believe that Pluto’s planetary status should be re-instated.
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