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Originally Posted by Sonia
Pluto was automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's. It will now join a new category of "dwarf planets".
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Alot of people have been saying this in the discussions I've seen online. Pluto does not overlap or cross Neptune's orbit. At all times there is a huge gap between Pluto's orbital path and Neptune's. The reason Pluto has been removed from the list of planets is due to the last criteria of the resolution. It does not have enough gravity to clear away it's local area. It's the same deal with Ceres; if Ceres were massive enough then its gravity would have either flung objects in the same orbit away or it would have collided with and absorbed them.
While I've often thought Pluto should not be a planet on scietific grounds, it should have retained its status for historical reasons. And as backup to that statement, I offer a host of scientifically inaccurate concepts that we all still use quite happily: the magnitude scale, stellar classes, the Quadrantid meteor shower, "seas" on the Moon, even my own nickname Volans which simply means "flying". Piscis Volans was the original name and is alot more sensible.
Well today I did the first school show without calling Pluto a planet. I had a group of rather bored grade 7's and 8's and they had no idea there was even a debate going on. I still mentioned Pluto however and gave them some of the facts and figures about it.
Peter.