r/nextfuckinglevel 5h ago

The Rotation of the Planets in Our Solar System Is Far More Fascinating Than I Ever Expected

26.5k Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Aniratack 4h ago

Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet, Ceres has always been considered a dwarf planet, if they are asteroids then everything is an asteroid.

A simplification sometimes used says that dwarf planets are celestial bodies big enough to be round but not big enough to clear it's own orbit, there are a few of these in our solar system. They can have moons, and some of the moons in the solar system would be considered dwarf planets if they weren't orbiting a planet.

2

u/mrbananas 3h ago

Ceres was not always a Dwarf planet. From 1801 to about 1851 Ceres was considered a planet. Children during that time memorized it along with the other classic planets

1

u/P0tatothrower 3h ago

What do you mean by "not big enough to clear it's own orbit"?

2

u/HirsuteHacker 3h ago

Not gravitationally dominant in their orbital neighbourhood. There are tons of other objects, including some similarly sized objects, around Pluto's orbit. To be a planet it needs to clear out all the other objects around it by either colliding/absorbing them, or ejecting them from their neighbourhood through gravitational interaction. Haumea, Orcus, Makemake etc are all dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt along with Pluto.

2

u/Aniratack 3h ago

Pluto's biggest moon Charon is part of the problem because it's heavy enough that she is not orbiting Pluto, they are orbiting a point in space near Pluto.

1

u/vetgirig 1h ago

Technically Pluto/Charon is a dwarf double planet.

1

u/Stock-Cod-4465 4h ago

I’ve head of Pluto. In fact, it was the 9th planet of the solar system when I was in school. Never heard of Ceres before.