Pluto: Should It Be a Planet
Once More?
When you were in school, how did you learn your planets? Some just remember it simply
by memory; Mercury, Venus, Earth and so forth. Others may remember it by having acronyms
such as My Very Excellent Mother Just Made Us Nine Pancakes or My Very Eyes May Just See
Upon the Nine Planets. But when the new demotion of Pluto was announced in 2006, it started a
whole new controversy: should Pluto be a planet once again or stay a dwarf planet. (Overbye,
2006). Considering its distance from the sun, orbit, and it's size it clearly does not fit the definition
of a planet that scientists have created. Because of this, Pluto has remained with the classification
of dwarf planet.
In 1930 scientists found a new body on which they called Pluto, having high hopes that they
had found a new planet. Some scientists believe that Pluto should be a planet because of its size,
placement and orbit. One reason why, is because it is the largest object in the outer solar system,
and scientists don't want to just consider it just a giant asteroid (The Week Staff, 2011). Even
though this is true, you do need to remember that Pluto is two times smaller than the smallest
official planet, Mercury. When a planet "clears it's neighborhood", it's clearing out the space and
orbit around it and picks up any smaller objects that gets near it. (Margot, 2006). But, Pluto is so
far away from the sun that it has not "cleared its neighborhood". Even thought it can't, some say
that it would be very hard for any planet to if it was placed where Pluto is. The planet would also
have to be extremely larger in size (space.com, 2010). Just because that statement was made, that
still makes Pluto not able to clear it's neighborhood, making it only classify for two out of the
three criteria given to be a planet. Though there were only a couple reasons listed, there are so
many more that...