Reply To: What if?
A lot of people are saying “well this will ensure Pluto gets reclassified as a planet again”
One of the qualifications to be a full-blown planet is that it must have cleared its orbit. Pluto is pretty much part of the Kuiper Belt. In other words, it’s in a dirty orbit.
Ironically, it could be argued that because Pluto is there, Neptune obviously hasn’t cleared its orbit (Pluto’s orbit is elliptical and it is sometimes closer to the sun than Neptune, the last such time was 1979-1999), and shouldn’t be considered a planet.
I don’t think very many people are satisfied with the definition formulated in 2006.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think it should be considered a planet myself. But really, it is what it is. Where we draw our dividing lines matters little in the end.
