Monday, November 9, 2009

What is considered a planet?

http://learn.uci.edu/media/OC08/11004/OC0811004_KuiperBelt.jpg

Pluto is no longer considered a planet. It is too small, and does not meet the requirements that are required for a planet to be a planet. The diameter of Pluto is 2360 km. It fails one requirement that a planet must have a cleared neighborhood. This means it has become gravitationally controlling, and there are no other bodies of its size other than its own moons or those otherwise under its gravitational impact. A large body which meets the standards for a planet but has not cleared its neighborhood is classified as a dwarf planet. The qualifications for a planet to be a planet are: it needs to orbit around the sun, to have enough gravity to pull itself into spherical shape, and it must have a cleared neighborhood of its orbit. Pluto has all of the following except a cleared neighborhood.
Unlike Pluto Uranus is a planet. The diameter of Uranus is 51 118, much larger than Pluto. Uranus orbits the sun which takes it 84.3 Earth years to make a complete revolution. The gravity of Uranus is only 91% of the gravity on Earth.
Uranus has a mass (quantity of matter) 14 1/2 times larger than Earth. The mass of Uranus is only around 1/20 as large as Jupiter.


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