Title : Should Pluto Be Considered a Planet? Duration : 03:01 Posted : 06 Mar 2016 - 05:05
Should Pluto Be Considered a Planet?
Subscribe! (It's free!): http://goo.gl/ceYWcp Why is Pluto no longer a planet? And does it deserve its demotion? Invisible Fire and Mirages: http://goo.gl/u8iKtw 7 Historical Misconceptions: http://goo.gl/y6tRNA When it was announced that Pluto was no longer a planet a lot of people, including myself, were not very happy. Pluto was the underdog, even though it was much smaller than all of its neighbors it still was a planet and everybody loved it. But one day the evil scientists decided that it was too small and must be revoked of its rank of planet. Well, Pluto being too small is only a small part of the reason it got demoted. The discovery of a 9th planet somewhere past Uranus was predicted by astronomers long before Pluto was discovered in 1930. When it was finally found astronomers noticed that it was smaller than all the other planets, but they loved it anyways and made it the 9th planet of our solar system. For about 75 years children were taught the 9 planets of the solar system and everyone was happy. But things changed as our telescopes got better and better. In 2005 Caltech was discovered. Caltech is an object that was found nearby Pluto that was very similar to it and just a little bit smaller. Astronomers began to worry that they might find more objects like these nearby. If they were to find one that was bigger than Pluto astronomers would have to reconsider its title of planet. The astronomers' fears came true later in 2005 when Eris was discovered which was even bigger than Pluto. Since then astronomers discovered that Pluto is just one of over 70,000 other objects that make up what is known as the Kuiper belt. To deal with this problem astronomers decided to create an exact definition of the word planet. They decided that for something to be considered a planet it must meet 3 criteria. 1. It needs to be in orbit around the Sun. Pluto orbits around the sun so, so far so good. 2. It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape. Pluto is a sphere. 3. It needs to have "cleared the neighborhood" of its orbit. And with this third requirement, the planet Pluto was Murdered. Having 70,000 other objects in its orbit disqualifies it from being planet. While I want Pluto to remain a planet as much as the next guy it would be impractical to do so. If Pluto was allowed to stay a planet then any object found that was as big as or bigger than Pluto would also have to be considered planets. This could add hundreds of new planets to our list, and no one wants to memorize the 300 planets of the solar system. So while it is sad to see Pluto go, just remember, it's for the best. Thanks for watching guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did leave me a like and subscribe. And as always, keep thinking.
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