Pluto; The Planet That Never Was
By Sean Carter

Funny, isn’t it? After approximately 76 years of known existence, Pluto is suddenly excluded from the list of planets in our solar system. Pluto, till now, was considered the ninth planet and the farthest one from the sun in the solar system. It was initially noticed in the year 1905, when Lowell Observatory (founded by Dr. Lowell in 1894) started an extensive project in search of a possible ninth planet. It was finally given an identity in 1930 by Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh of Arizona’s Lowell Observatory.

Pluto is no stranger to controversy. Infact, it’s been dogged by disputes ever since its discovery. Many astronomers feel that Pluto, now officially downgraded to ‘dwarf status’ on August 24, 2006 by International Astronomical Union, never deserved to be a full planet in the first place. Pluto was considered a planet because scientists initially believed that it was of the same size as of earth. It remained one because for years, it was the only known object in the Kuiper Belt, an enigmatic zone beyond the Neptune that is teeming with comets and other planetary objects. In 1978, Pluto was found to have a moon, later named as Cheron. Later two more were found which christened Nix and Hydra this past june.

So now the question appears: What is a planet’s new defination and why was Pluto disqualified ? The answer provided to the people is that a Planet should be a Celestial Body that (i) Orbits around the Sun; (ii) Has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape; and (iii) Has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. Pluto was disqualified because it failed to meet the third condition. Its oblong orbit overlaps Neptune’s.