Is Pluto a Planet Or Not?
Hell yeah! Pluto rocks!
Side Score: 36
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No! Pluto is a dump!
Side Score: 17
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Pluto has a planet core and four moons. Along with that Pluto has a atmosphere and a magnetic feald. Thin but it dose. My friend uses this; a planet has to move objects away from its orbit. Pluto dosen't so its not a planet. My counter, if a rock bigger than earth comes along and moves US then are we not a planet? Side: Hell yeah! Pluto rocks!
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Pluto was demoted from planetary status due to a number of prominent factors. The first was that, like Ceres it was surrounded by many objects of similar size and composition. Ceres was first thought to be a planet because of its spherical shape but later on it was labelled a dwarf planet due to its size, and the surrounding bodies were called asteroids. Secondly Pluto’s orbit is substantially different from those of the other planets. It is inclined and varies from being around 49AU to 30AU from the sun. It is also very small having a radius of 1180km, smaller then our moon. Charon, Pluto’s moon, has a radius of around 600km. Which initiated another debate over whether or not it should be called a binary planetary system. Astronomers soon discovered many other objects around Pluto such as Makemake and Sedna which were similar in size to that of Pluto. Then in early 2005 Eris was discovered and it was larger than Pluto. This led to the revaluation of the definition of ‘planet’ in 2006 by the IAU. The traditional definition of a planet (a celestial body moving around a star) was changed, and for an object to be classified as a planet it had to; Be in orbit around the Sun, Have sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium Have had "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit. If an object was found but only met the first two points it would be classified as a dwarf planet. Pluto, Eris and the other asteroids are now considered part of the Kuiper belt. Side: No! Pluto is a dump!
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