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Why did Pluto get kicked out of the planet club?
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what is "not clearing its neighboring region of other objects "?
At school, most of us were taught there were nine planets in our solar system. But something changed and now there's only eight. When Nasa’s New Horizons mission was launched at the start of 2006, Pluto was a planet, but it's not any more.
This means that the planet has become gravitationally dominant -- there are no other bodies of comparable size other than its own satellites or those otherwise under its gravitational influence, in its vicinity in space.
So any large body that does not meet these criteria is now classed as a “dwarf planet” .
Pluto is only 1,430 miles in diameter and that makes it smaller than our Moon. Pluto is 3.7 billion miles from the Sun that’s 40 times the distance the Earth is from it. Consequently, it was the last 'planet' discovered. It took until 1930, because it was so small and too far away to be seen without the aid of a powerful telescope.
It ended up being a case of ‘last in, first out’ as Pluto was kicked out of the planet club in 2006.
Why did Pluto get kicked out of the planet club?
In August 2006 ,The International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a dwarf planet because it did not meet the three criteria the IAU uses to define a full-sized planet.
What makes a planet a planet?
What is a Dwarf Planet?
the three criteria of the IAU for a full-sized planet are:
A “dwarf planet,” as defined by the IAU, is a celestial body in direct orbit of the Sun that is massive enough that its shape is controlled by gravitational forces rather than mechanical forces (and is thus ellipsoid in shape), but has not cleared its neighboring region of other objects.
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union put forward a new definition for what makes a planet. Which of these criteria did Pluto fail?
1. It is in orbit around the Sun.
2. It has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium (a nearly round shape).
3. It has "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit.
Because Pluto does not have enough ‘gravitational influence’ to clear its neighboring orbit it was decided it did not make the cut.
Instead it was rebranded as a ‘dwarf planet’.
Dwarf planets are not officially full-fledged planets, so Pluto was stripped of the status it had held since its discovery in 1930.