Moreno 1

Julian Moreno

Ms. Figueroa

English

August 8, 2018 (Logos)

Ultima Thule

Many scientists believed that the solar system only consisted of eight planets, but now

they are state that the solar system has nine. It has nearly been six years when astronomer’s

favorite planet Ultima Thule, known as Pluto today, has been demoted dawn to a dwarf planet.

Many scientists were outraged of the radical change of demoting Pluto to a dwarf planet because

of the way planets have been defined. No one really knows what a planet actually is.

The definition of a planet has jumped around and changed numerous times and the most

recent change declared that Pluto is and never was an actual planet. According to the article

“Yes, Pluto is a planet” written by David Grinspoon and Alan Stern it states that the IAU,

abbreviated for International Astronomical Union, defines a planet is a bizarre way. IAU’s

definition preached “that if an orbiting world has ‘cleared its zone,’ or thrown its weight around

enough to eject all other nearby objects, then it is a planet. Otherwise it is not” (Grinspoon and

Stern 3). That definition would also declare that the earth was not a planet for the first five

hundred years of history because of where earth was orbiting. Let’s say we were to take todays

living, happy, breathing planet we call home, Earth, and moved it outside the asteroid belt, it

would no longer be considered a planet. We would be demoted to a dwarf planet by definition.

Pluto is still a planet but is considered a dwarf planet because of the illogical and unreasonable

definition.
 Moreno 2

I didn’t get to finish Ms. Figueroa. : )