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Back in Time
On February 18, 1930:
Pluto, the smallest and last of the nine planets, was discovered. Pluto was such a small planet that it is smaller than seven moons in the solar system (the Moon, Io, Europa, Callisto, Gannymede, Titan, and Triton). In fact, its own moon, Charon is about half its size; bigger in proportion to Pluto than any other satellite in the solar system [it’s super moon to Pluto].
1979:
The solar system got mixed up [the old switcheroo was performed], Pluto had crossed the orbital path of Neptune, which ended up making it the eighth planet in the solar system and Neptune the ninth.
Every 248 years this happens for 20 years, then it [does the re-switcheroo] goes back to what it normally is; with Neptune in the eight spot and Pluto in the nine spot.
1992:
The first time that Pluto’s status as a planet was in jeopardy. This was when David Jewitt and J. Luu discovered a very interesting object that orbited about the same distance from the Sun as Pluto and was similar in composition; but it was smaller than Pluto. It was about the size of an asteroid. This object is one of, now, a hundred objects in orbit of the Sun in a belt that is called the Kuiper Belt.
Could this small icy body be Pluto II [I think Pluto Jr. sounds better]? Most scientists don’t believe so, they believe that it is too small. There is a problem to that, though. Since 1992, Jewitt and Luu have been searching in the area of where they found the object and have found more. None are as big as the planet Pluto, but the sizes of them keep getting larger as they keep finding them. They have already found one that is 1/3 the size of Pluto, and they have only searched a small part of the area.
Is Pluto’s Status as a Planet in Serious Trouble Now?
For now, it seems that Pluto’s status of being a planet is going to be intact. In the future, though, if someone were to discover an object within the Kuiper Belt that is about the size of Pluto, then it will be in grave danger of losing its planetary status.
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