SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -Pop Culture. When Pluto was reclassified in 2006 from a planet to a dwarf planet, there was widespread outrage on behalf of the demoted planet.

Detailed explanation-2: -After reclassification in 2005, Pluto is no longer classified as a planet because it: Pluto’s gravity has not cleared its orbit of other matter and therefore it no longer fits the modern definition of a planet.

Detailed explanation-3: -It says a planet must do three things: It must orbit a star (in our cosmic neighborhood, the Sun). It must be big enough to have enough gravity to force it into a spherical shape. It must be big enough that its gravity cleared away any other objects of a similar size near its orbit around the Sun.

Detailed explanation-4: -Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun.

Detailed explanation-5: -It’s smaller than any other planet–even smaller than Earth’s moon. It’s dense and rocky, like the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars). Pluto’s orbit is erratic. One of its moons, Charon, is about half Pluto’s size. 25-Aug-2006