Planets

_carmi

me, myself & us
#1
i read recently in an ad to the planetarium here in montreal (it's a place where you can know more about planets) thats we had 8 planets in our system or 9 can't remember. which planets have been excluded and why?
 

SicC

Dying Breed
Staff member
#4
Becuase its not a planet its just a hunk of ice really no bigger than a moon. From what i read scientist think it was a moon from one of the planets in the solar system, was a while ago when i read this. But im sure chronic or jokerman can spread more light on this.

pz
 

Flipmo

VIP Member
Staff member
#5
To be named a planet, there are 3 conditions to be associated with it..

It has to be in orbit and around the sun
Has to be big enough to be a sphere with it's own gravitational force
Lastly, it has to have gravitational dominance in it's own 'orbit zone'..

I think that was the one that Pluto failed on. The last one.

In 2015 we'll know more about Pluto since the New Horizon spacecraft would have reached it and will have investigated it more.
 

Cooper

Well-Known Member
#8
There's lots of mini planets...'dwarf planet' being the technical term. Pluto is now one of them. 3 are currently recognized, but apparently there's lots more. The current ones are Ceres, Pluto & Eris.
 

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