Wait, why isn't Pluto a planet?

Morning Planets!

The other day I was thinking about planets (as one does).

And I suddenly remembered that Pluto “technically” isn't a planet anymore after it lost its planethood in the early 2000s.

And that raised the question…

Why exactly is Pluto NOT a planet???

To answer this we gotta go back to like 200 years ago.

Back then, we thought our solar system only had 7 planets:

(No Neptune)

(No Pluto)

But, one day this astronomer guy was looking up at the night sky when he discovered… a brand new planet!

It was a teeny tiny planet found smack dab in the middle of Mars and Jupiter.

He called it… Ceres!

So then everybody had to learn the new list of planets:

But then, the very next year another astronomer dude found another planet.

And it was also between Mars and Jupiter, but this time it was even smaller!

Then a little while later ANOTHER teeny tiny planet was discovered there.

And another.

And another!

Soon there were thousands of these tiny little planets just chillin between Mars and Jupiter

This was what later came to be known as an asteroid belt!

So then fast forward to the 1990s.

Neptune and Pluto are now on the list.

But with all these fancy new telescopes we discovered ANOTHER planet right next to Pluto called Albion.

Then we discovered another.

And another…

See where this is going?

It turns out wayyy out near Pluto there was a SECOND asteroid belt!!

The scientists realized they had a bit of a problem here…

Cause they cant give planet names to ALL of these asteroids.

So all the scientists came together and agreed on 3 requirements that a celestial body MUST meet before it is granted planethood.

Number 1: It must orbit the sun.

Number 2: It must have sufficient mass and gravity to pull itself into a nearly spherical shape.

Number 3: It must have cleared all other similar sized objects from its orbit.

And unfortunately for Pluto, it doesn't clear rule 3…

Technically making it a “dwarf planet”

Sorry Pluto :/

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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