The oppressed Pluto is never left alone. Although this small mass, which has been debated as a planet for years, is not officially counted as a planet at the moment, it has been argued that Pluto should be counted as a planet again, according to a new study.
Researchers at the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida called for Pluto not to be a planet, based on a phenomenon from years ago, that it is wrong and should be counted as a planet.
Everything is based on Galileo
The criteria for defining a planet as a planet by Galileo Galilei, seen as the father of astronomy, became obsolete after 2006, as the International Astronomical Union had reformed the criteria for a planet to be counted as a planet, so Pluto was no longer a planet.
According to Galileo, the main criterion required for a planet to be considered a planet was geological activity, and this opinion was accepted from the 1600s to the end of the 1900s. This opinion changed due to two factors: the unpopularity of planetary science articles and the increase in the publication of almanacs.
University of California planetary scientist Philip Metzger said: “We’ve discovered that there are so many almanacs being sold in the UK and the US that every household can get a copy each year. This was an event that changed the course of history; “People agreed that the Earth revolved around the Sun, not the Sun around the Earth,” he says.
Whereas, earlier generations such as moons and asteroids could be considered planets based on Galileo’s opinion. This situation changed because astrology and astronomy needed a certain number of planets to be able to make predictions.
“Planets don’t have to be complex structures”
Planetary scientist Metzger said, “Planets were no longer defined by complex phenomena such as the need for active geology and the potential for civilization. Rather, it was described by a simple phenomenon, such as the specific motions of the Sun around it.”
Between the early 1900s and the 1960s, when space exploration missions became more commonplace, Pluto was listed as one of the nine fixed planets, although some scientists began to return to Galileo’s broader definition of geophysical planets, while others still did not accept it.
University of California researchers suggested that the basic International Astronomical Union criterion that makes Pluto a planet (that a planet must clear its orbit) has never been used in the past. For this reason, researchers argue that Pluto is a planet and call for everyone to accept it. Do you think Pluto is a planet or not?
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