this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
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Pluto is a dwarf planet, which is still a planet.
Also, they absolutely should have just made an exception for Pluto so science teachers everywhere could have used that as a fun teaching point.
Considering it's in a double tidally locked orbit with its own moon Charon and the point that both rotate around is outside Pluto's volume I would argue that the Pluto/Charon system is actually a dwarf-binary-planet.
I'd okay with that. As long as it's still technically a planet. (what? it's my favorite!)
At that point the only really 'planety' thing about is is basically that it is spherical.
Its not primarily orbiting the sun, so much as it is the barycenter of itself and charon.
And there are moons that are bigger, and more spherical, and more massive than Pluto.
And while it does have the vaguely heart shaped terrain feature, Mars has a smiley face crater, Saturn has an eternal hexagon on its north and south poles, despite being a gas giant, Jupiter has the spot, Mimas kinda looks like the Death Star, etc.
Everyone loves an underdog
https://youtu.be/xgFKxFX3IwY I recommend watching this video
Also they shouldn't have called the category of "things that aren't planets despite being in some ways planet-like" "dwarf planet," they should have called them "planetoids." Star Trek had been referring to small planet-like objects as planetoids for decades, so the work in the popular consciousness had already been done. Dwarf planet not being a planet makes it sound like they're saying dwarf people don't count as people, and I don't care for that at all.
Precedent for an exception would go to Ceres not Pluto.
The text book publishers are always looking for a reason to sell new editions.
https://science.nasa.gov/dwarf-planets/
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/18995/is-jupiter-a-dwarf-planet
You would think this is the case but they specifically decided through a vote that a dwarf planet is NOT a planet but a completely separate type of object. The whole vote was ridiculous and done at the very end of the conference so that only a fraction of the members were there to vote on pluto.
Edit: I'm down voted but every word of what I wrote is true. Dig into it and you will find out the same.
Then YOU come up with a definition of a planet that manages to include Pluto while simultaneously excluding Ceres, Charon, Eris, Cedna, Makemake, and 200+ other objects in the solar system large enough to be spherical, some of which are larger than Pluto
The definition of planet should be what it is, a traditional unscientific category based on history... like constellations. Calling Mercury a planet and Jupiter a planet as though they are similar in almost any way is silly scientifically.
Perhaps leave the traditional planets category alone and create new categories that could pertain to all systems not just ours. Maybe something like terrestrial planets, gas planets, dwarf planets... etc. Categories that won't have to change any time a new discovery is made.