What is Pluto Classified as Now it’s not a Planet?

Question: What is Pluto classified as now it’s not a planet?

Answer: Since having it’s planet status taken away in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union Pluto has been classified as a Dwarf Planet of which there are potentially many others.

It is uncertain and debatable how many Dwarf Planets there are in our solar system but there are currently three officially: Pluto, Ceres and Eris.

To give you an idea of it’s actual size Pluto is significantly smaller is terms of diameter and mass than even our own moon, it contains a mere 0.2% of the mass of planet Earth.

Some main reason’s why Pluto is no longer a planet:

1) It is only about twice the size of it’s moon Charon whereas other planets are many times bigger than their moons.

2) Unlike other planets Pluto’s orbital path is littered with asteroids due to it’s lack of mass and gravitational pull, and therefore ability to clear it’s area of the solar system. A true planet is expected to “dominate” it’s orbital path.

3) If Pluto was kept as a planet it would open the door to many other objects becoming classed the same including Eris which is actually bigger than Pluto.

Pluto used to be called the ninth planet of our solar system but there are now only eight officially: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Despite some groups campaigns to do so, it is highly unlikely Pluto will ever be reinstated as a true planet given all the statistics.