this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
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I'd agree with you but the definition is arbitrary and is not of Natural Kind. Even worse, instead of making the definition of a planet more clear it just makes the determining what is a planet more difficult.
Honestly, if they just went with defining 'Major Planets', 'Minor Planets', and asteroids determined by mass and spherical shape, I think everyone would've moved on by now.
If this is true, then please tell me what totally non-arbitrary reason there was for Ceres to not be universally considered a planet?
I'm not sure what you mean. It should be a planet by the definition I gave before unless I didn't convey what I was trying to say correctly. It's definitely large, heavy, and spherical enough to be a planet in my opinion.
There's tons of different sized objects in our solar system and it's distinguishable enough to qualify in this one.