Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet today. How is it that the planet named for the Greek god Hades goes from mingling with titans like Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Neptune (god of the seas), and Uranus (god of night)to a ... dwarf planet? Well, it's not the first time. Ceres (now rated as an asteroid) was classified as the eight planet when it was first discovered in 1801 by Giovanni Piazzi and retained that status for nearly half a century. So maybe there's a reason. Maybe it's because Pluto is smaller than seven of the solar system's moons (the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton). Maybe it's because Pluto's only moon, Charon, doesn't really even orbit it - Pluto and Charon orbit each other. Maybe, just maybe, since it's only 2274 km (1413 miles) in diameter, it doesn't deserv the same standing as a planet like Jupiter, which is 342,273 times larger than Pluto. Maybe, it's just a large rock, far, far, away.
Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet today. How is it that the planet named for the Greek god Hades goes from mingling with titans like Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Neptune (god of the seas), and Uranus (god of night)to a ... dwarf planet? Well, it's not the first time. Ceres (now rated as an asteroid) was classified as the eight planet when it was first discovered in 1801 by Giovanni Piazzi and retained that status for nearly half a century. So maybe there's a reason. Maybe it's because Pluto is smaller than seven of the solar system's moons (the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton). Maybe it's because Pluto's only moon, Charon, doesn't really even orbit it - Pluto and Charon orbit each other. Maybe, just maybe, since it's only 2274 km (1413 miles) in diameter, it doesn't deserv the same standing as a planet like Jupiter, which is 342,273 times larger than Pluto. Maybe, it's just a large rock, far, far, away.
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