AkaSci 🛰️
@AkaSci@fosstodon.org  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

19 years ago on August 24, 2006, Pluto was demoted in status from Planet to Dwarf Planet, as the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally defined the criteria for a planet.

A planet was defined as a celestial body that
(a) is in orbit around the Sun.
(b) has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape.
(c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Pluto fails to meet the 3rd criterion 🙁

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ckh-gW-oMYBbxKd8PgVyKwdMg1ywhA7h/view
https://www.iau.org/Iau/Science/What-we-do/Pluto-and-the-Developing-Landscape-of-Our-Solar-System.aspx?WebsiteKey=9e4eaea2-b0d6-4c4b-bd18-913a208b91be
#Pluto
1/n

Enhanced color global view of Pluto. Created using four images from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) combined with color data from the Ralph instrument. (The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage.) The images, taken when the spacecraft was 450,000 km away, show features as small as 2.2 km, twice the resolution of the single-image view taken on July 13, 2015. https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=265 Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Enhanced color global view of Pluto. Created using four images from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) combined with color data from the Ralph instrument. (The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage.) The images, taken when the spacecraft was 450,000 km away, show features as small as 2.2 km, twice the resolution of the single-image view taken on July 13, 2015. https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=265 Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Enhanced color global view of Pluto. Created using four images from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) combined with color data from the Ralph instrument. (The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage.) The images, taken when the spacecraft was 450,000 km away, show features as small as 2.2 km, twice the resolution of the single-image view taken on July 13, 2015. https://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=265 Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute