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Old 04-03-2013, 11:44 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by astroron View Post
Eccentric or otherwise it is still in orbit around the Sun.
Cheers
It's Monday morning, Ron. I don't think anyone was expecting this thread to be taken too seriously.

Quote:
The only thing going against Pluto is it's size as far as I can see.
Malcolm already posted the IAU's new "planetary criteria", but this article explains Pluto's demotion in straightforward terms. Size didn't count against Pluto in the final analysis (it has enough mass to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium), but rather the third planetary criteria of "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit was the sticking point.

An object meeting the first two criteria but not the third is a "dwarf planet".
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