Is Pluto A Planet?

Copyright 2016

Should Pluto Be A Planet?

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Pluto: we all know it’s controversial wonders and how NASA, in 2006, announced to the world that Pluto is not classified as a planet anymore, but rather a dwarf planet. Lots of people were unsurprisingly angered by the news, while others were satisfied. But why were some of those people satisfied? I’m Ty Kennedy, and I’m going to tell you why people were satisfied and why Pluto shouldn’t be a planet.

DID YOU KNOW?

Pluto was named Pluto by an eleven year old girl in Oxford, England in 1931.

WHY SHOULDN’T PLUTO BE A PLANET?

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First, let’s talk about it’s highly elliptical orbit. It travels around the Sun in a “squashed circle”. In fact, Pluto’s orbit is so elliptical that it occasionally switches places with Neptune. This means (if Pluto was considered a planet) that Neptune would be at one point the eighth planet farthest from the Sun and later the ninth planet farthest from the Sun. Plus, it takes 248 years to orbit the Sun, longer than any other planet by far. And, Pluto orbits in the Kuiper Belt, a type of asteroid belt.

It’s size is very small. Compared to other planets, Pluto is dwarfed by every single one. In the Kuiper Belt, astronomers have found bigger dwarf planets, like Eris, which has about 28% more mass than the mass of Pluto. Even so, Eris has never been considered a planet. Pluto is 600 miles wide, while Mars, our smallest planet (so far), is 4,222 miles wide.

Some people say that Pluto should be a planet because we have gotten satellites there. That doesn’t mean that Pluto should be a planet. We have gotten satellites everywhere, but that doesn’t mean they’re planets. That’s like saying the Sun is a planet because we have taken pictures of it, when the Sun is classified as a star. Satellites don’t ever matter when counting distance as a planet, and neither do rovers.

When I was little, my mom told me NASA stated Pluto wasn’t a planet anymore. At that time, I was upset. Now, I understand why Pluto isn’t a planet anymore. There’s a highly elliptical orbit, the size is way too small, and even though there’s satellites, that doesn’t mean it’s considered a planet. Those are the reasons why I personally think Pluto isn’t a planet.