Demotion of Pluto relegates the planethood status of Earth

Dipak Nath

Planethood means the state or condition of being a Planet. Clyde.W. Tombough discovered Pluto on march13, 1930. From its discovery in 1930 until 2006, Pluto was classified as Planet. In the late 20th and early 21st century, many objects similar to Pluto were discovered in the outer solar system, notably the scattered disc object Eris in 2005, which is 27% more massive than Pluto. On august-24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined what it means to be a Planet within the solar system. This definition excluded Pluto as a Planet added it as a member of the new category “Dwarf Planet” along with Eris and Ceres. There were many reasons why Pluto got demoted to dwarf planet status, one of which was that it couldn't clear its orbit of asteroids and other debris. But Earth's orbit is also crowded...too crowded for Earth to be a planet? Earth is indeed in a very crowded orbit, surrounded by tens of thousands of asteroids and other objects. The presence of so many asteroids seems like a serious problem for Earth's claim that it has cleared its neighborhood. And Earth isn't alone in this problem - Jupiter is surrounded by some 100,000 Trojan asteroids, and there's similar clutter around Mars and Neptune. Indeed, one object that Neptune has categorically failed to clear from its orbit is Pluto itself. Alan Stern, the head of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and a critic of the Pluto reclassification, points out quite simply, "If Neptune had cleared its zone, Pluto wouldn't be there." Therefore if we use the definition set forth by IAU, Pluto, Neptune, Jupiter, Mars & the Earth, are not Planets. They are also “Dwarf Planet”. Now Pluto’s demotion to “Dwarf Planet” relegates the planetary status of Earth. So there is a hope that lots of astronomers are not happy with the new definition, and could vote to change the definition of planethood.