Answer to Anonymous' Question

Today, at 8.50 PM, ANONYMOUS posted this comment,

DEAR MISS HIDAYAH, IS PLUTO CONSIDERED A PLANET ? WHAT IS A DWARF PLANET?

Dear Anonymous,

You asked a very big question so get ready for a big answer.

Pluto is not considered a planet. Who decides this? The International Astronomical Union.

They have decided to classify Pluto as a dwarf planet as they discovered something about Pluto.

Before I explain, you must know two terms.

Orbit - the path taken by an object in space around another object in space. The dotted lines you see is an orbit. Orbit is usually circular or elliptical (like an oval shape).


Mass: To put it very simply, mass is the amount of space an object takes up.

Now, to be a planet, an object must:

Point 1: orbit around the sun

Point 2: be big enough so that gravity shapes it into a sphere (circle). This point is hard to explain without using a lot of astronomical words which you may not understand. Just know that if an object in space is big enough, it will have a gravitational force which pulls the object into shape. Confusing, right?

Point 3: have mass that is bigger than the mass of objects in its own orbit.

As you can see from Earth's picture which I displayed above, Earth's mass is much much bigger than the objects that might be in its orbit. However Pluto...


See? There are objects in Pluto's orbit which is bigger than Pluto! Pluto's orbit is MASSIVE! Bigger than Pluto!

Pluto passed point 1 and point 2 but failed point 3. So according to the learned men and women of the International Astronomical Union, this means that Pluto is NOT a planet but a dwarf planet.

What is a dwarf planet? It is just a planet which like Pluto, passes point 1 and point 2 but fails point 3!

Now you must also know that scientists are still arguing over what exactly to call Pluto. So Pluto is still a mysterious object to them.

Do you know that other than the eight planets and Pluto, there are other planetary objects in the Solar System? One is called Sedna. It is very far from the Sun and it takes 10, 500 years to go around the sun!!! We only take 1 year! Can you imagine how far Sedna is??????? I can't!

I hope I have answered your question.

I am glad to that you are asking very good questions. Feel free to ask more questions and I will answer them to the best of my knowledge and ability.