Who said pluto was not a planet

But either way, the joke connecting the two, as told in the Mel Brooks film "Spaceballs " remains:. We were lost. None of us knew where we were. Then Harry starts feeling around on all the trees, and he says, "I got it! We're on Pluto. From the bark! Pluto is a dwarf planet that lies in the Kuiper Belt, an area full of icy bodies and other dwarf planets out past Neptune. Pluto is very small, only about half the width of the United States and its biggest moon Charon is about half the size of Pluto.

Almost all the planets travel around the Sun in nearly perfect circles. But not Pluto. It takes an oval-shaped path with the Sun nowhere near its center. What's more, its path is quite tilted compared to the planets. Natural Color. Pluto is officially classified as a dwarf planet. Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages.

Send it to CuriousKidsCanada theconversation. Why do some books say Pluto is a planet and other books say it is not? Also, if Pluto is not a planet, then what is it? Pluto is one of hundreds of thousands of icy asteroids called Kuiper Belt objects that orbit around the Sun farther away than Neptune. But for 76 years, Pluto was considered the ninth planet. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in , when my grandma was a little girl. However, Stern also accused the IAU of harming science itself when it publicly voted to relegate Pluto in The image of the IAU taking a vote was the single most damaging pedagogical event in science in probably a century, because to many people it was easy to reach the conclusion that science is arbitrary or political, which it is not.

The argument about Pluto is about semantics. After all, where astronomers draw the line between planets, dwarf planets, planetoids and moons is essentially arbitrary and makes zero difference to reality. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Nov 12, , am EST.

Pluto and its moon Charon, which would both have been planets under the initial definition proposed Aug. Earth and the other eight large planets have, on the other hand, cleared broad swaths of space of any other large objects. He has already found dozens that fit the category. The vote came after eight days of contentious debate that involved four separate proposals at the group's meeting in Prague.

The initial proposal , hammered out by a group of seven astronomers, historians and authors, attempted to preserve Pluto as a planet but was widely criticized for diluting the meaning of the word. It would also have made planets out of the asteroid Ceres and Pluto's moon Charon. But not now. The category of "dwarf planet" is expected to include dozens of round objects already discovered beyond Neptune. Ultimately, hundreds will probably be found, astronomers say.