LESSON 4
Pluto was Once Thought to
Be a Planet
Objective
• At the end of the lesson, you should be able
to explain why Pluto is no longer considered
as a planet.
• When Pluto was discovered in 1930 until
2006, it was considered as the ninth planet
of our solar system.
• What was the reason why Pluto was
removed from the list?
Learn about it!
• Scientists have long before predicted that the
solar system has a ninth planet and named it
Planet X. Until 1930, when the American
astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, observed in his
photographic plates, an object that seemed to
have moved from one position to another.
After the staff in Lowell Observatory in Arizona
studied and confirmed the images, they finally
named Planet X as Pluto, from the Roman god
of the underworld, as suggested by an 11-year
old girl from England.
Pluto and Eris
The mass of Pluto was not yet
determined until its largest moon,
Charon was discovered. Though Pluto is
almost as heavy as the moon of Earth
and only 2400 km wide it stood as the
ninth planet in the solar system until
another celestial body was discovered in
2005 and was named Eris.
Pluto and Eris
Eris was of the same structure but bigger and heavier
than Pluto. With this discovery many questioned the
classification of Pluto as a planet or will Eris and other
celestial body with almost the same mass as Pluto be
considered planet as well. For the past years, there was
no exact definition of what a planet is, but the need for
one was felt during this time. This led the International
Astronomical Union (IAU) to find and provide criteria
on how a celestial body can be considered a planet. In
2006, IAU gave the three criteria which are:
•The celestial body must
be spherical due to its
own gravity that pulls
itself into a round shape.
•The celestial body
must orbit around
the Sun.
•The celestial body
must be able to
clear its path from
other celestial
bodies.
Pluto as a Dwarf Planet
• Pluto passed the first two criteria but failed
on the third. Due to Pluto’s very small mass,
the smallest planet in the solar system, it is
not able to dominate other celestial bodies
on its path, which means that it is not able
to consume or remove other bodies along
its orbit. For this reason, Pluto has been
removed from being a planet and was
considered as a dwarf planet.
Pluto as a Dwarf Planet
• Dwarf planets are those celestial bodies that satisfy
the first two criteria given above but fail on the third
just like Pluto and Eris. There are other dwarf planets
discovered like Makemake and Haumea which like
Pluto and Eris are found beyond the planet Neptune
and another one which is considered as the biggest
asteroid – Ceres which is found in the asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter. All those icy-cold bodies
found within 50 astronomical unit (AU) from Neptune
is part of a region in space called Kuiper Belt.
Explore!
• Look at the picture below. You will see the
orbit taken by the eight planets as well as
Pluto around the Sun. Aside from the fact
that Pluto was not able to satisfy all three
criteria to be a planet, it has other several
differences compared to the eight
remaining planets. One can be seen below.
Can you describe the orbit taken by Pluto
relative to the orbits of the rest of the
planets?
Key Points
• International Astronomical Union made criteria for a celestial
body to be considered a planet these are: the body must be
spherical, must orbit around the sun and must be able to
dominate other celestial bodies along its path.
• Pluto was removed from being a planet for it failed on the
third criterion; due to its small mass, it is not able to clear the
smaller bodies along its path.
• Celestial bodies that satisfy the first two criteria of being a
planet but fail on the third just like Pluto are called dwarf
planets.
• Eris, Makemake, Haumea and Ceres are just some of the dwarf
planets found in the solar system.
• Kuiper Belt is the region behind Neptune that extends up to
50 AU that contains icy-cold bodies like Pluto and its moons.
