Why is Pluto not a planet? 7 unmissable facts

Do you know why Pluto is not a planet? Come and discover this and other interesting facts about the planet.

Who was missing our content talking about space? Today the main theme of our content is from another planet – or better said, 'ex-planet'.

Depending on your age, it's very likely that you spent a good part of your school life hearing from your teachers that our Solar System is made up of 9 distinct planets, orbiting around the Sun, right?

It turns out that this changed a few years ago and what was 9 became 8 planets, since Pluto was removed from this list and was no longer considered a planet by the entire scientific community.

But what caused this change? Why is Pluto not considered a planet by astronomers and, consequently, by the rest of the world?

That’s what we’re going to discover throughout today’s text! 

And in addition to knowing the reason for this change, we will also explore Pluto a little more and discover some interesting facts about this 'ex-planet' that is considered one of the most mysterious in our Solar System.

Why isn't Pluto a planet? Check out the answer to this and 7 other unmissable facts about it!

In this topic, we will explore together some of the curiosities of this planet that, for many, many years, occupied the position of the ninth planet in our Solar System.

Do you remember why Pluto is not a planet?

Anyone who followed all the movement regarding Pluto's change must remember how this period generated doubts.

After all, for years, several generations were taught that our Solar System is – or at least was – composed of 9 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

But it was from 2016 that Pluto ended up leaving this list and was no longer considered a planet.

Why is Pluto not a planet?

But why is Pluto no longer a planet? That's what we'll find out next!

Basically, Pluto was removed from the list of planets by the International Astronomical Union because it is not capable of steering its own orbit. In other words, it depends on other celestial bodies influencing its trajectory.

This caused it to leave the list, being demoted to the 'dwarf planet' category.

The discovery of Pluto

Although it was recently removed from the list of planets in our Solar System, its discovery is also considered very recent. 

Astronomers discovered Pluto as the ninth planet in the solar system in 1930.

But despite this relatively recent discovery, Pluto has the same 'age' as the other planets that are part of the Solar System: something around 4.6 billion years!

A Day on Pluto

Let he who has never wished that the day had more than 24 hours so that it would be possible to deal with all the pending tasks and commitments of a busy day cast the first stone.

And with increasingly busy routines full of commitments, this thought ends up popping into our minds from time to time.

Well, if we lived on Pluto, the length of a day would be far from being a problem – at least when we look at it from that perspective. Quite the opposite. 

That's because one day on Pluto is the equivalent of 153 hours here on Earth! Can you imagine? A day with more than 150 hours would be enough to do a lot of things, right? 

And as the length of the day is longer, consequently the length of a year on Pluto is also very different from what we are used to here.

On Pluto, one year is equivalent to 248 Earth years.

This means that, if we take into account the year since the planet was discovered until today, not even a year has passed on Pluto!

Sunlight on Pluto 

Do you know the sunlight that we enjoy here on Earth? It takes about 8 minutes for it to travel from the sun to here. Pretty fast, right?

This happens because our planet is a good distance from the Sun.

The same sunlight takes much longer than that to reach Pluto. For the 'ex-planet', sunlight takes approximately 5 hours to reach it.

And this directly interferes with Pluto's dynamics with the Sun. There, the Sun only rises and sets once a week!

A name for the planet

Have you ever stopped to think about how the planets get their names? Pluto has a very peculiar story about how it was named.

When it was discovered, thousands of names were submitted, but the name chosen was Venetia Burney, a girl of just 11 years old.

The young woman, who was a big fan of Greek mythology, chose the name due to the name of the Roman God of the Underworld.

She mentioned the name to her grandfather who knew a scientist who was involved in the studies of the planet, Herbet Hall Turner.

Turner took the name to his team and unanimously, the planet was named. The little girl earned five pounds for the idea. 

Pluto is smaller than the Moon

Pluto's total radius is approximately 1,150 kilometers, which is almost 20% less than the radius of Earth.

The Earth has slightly flattened poles, but unlike that, Pluto has a total diameter of approximately 2,300 kilometers, or in other words, two-thirds of the moon.

Which just means that the ex-planet is small relative to other planets, but it is still very large, for example:

It would be necessary to travel more than 7 thousand kilometers to go around the dwarf planet, which is equivalent to going in a straight line from Spain to the Amazon.

Pluto's Frozen Heart

Scientists discovered many years ago after probe analysis that there is a formation on the planet's surface that resembles the shape of a heart.

Furthermore, it was discovered that in the center of this formation there is a frozen plain.

According to the same studies, it is possible to state that the “heart” was formed more than 100 million years ago and that it may still be in the process of formation.

A Gentle Planet

Another interesting fact about Pluto is that, unlike most, it doesn't have many craters.

According to researchers, the planet's surface is very young and smooth, giving it the affectionate nickname of “The Smooth Planet”.

Did you like this content? Then take the opportunity to read it too What has NASA discovered recently? See what's new in space!