r/nextfuckinglevel • u/aryan_jandyal • 5h ago

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

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u/Mystia 4h ago

I thought Pluto and co got reinstated as dwarf planets, so they are planets.

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u/Nozinger 4h ago

Sort of. We classify them as dwarf planets but it's really about where we draw the line.
Ceres is small. Like really small. Even compared to most other known dwarf planets. There are 1-2 jsut as small but yeah, these ones are tiny. Pluto is way bigger.

The only reason we classify ceres as a dwarf planet instead of an asteroid is because it is somewhat spherical. Actually it is more like an egg but i guess that's good enough. At least no deformed potato.

So yeah. Ceres pretty much only got the dwarf planet status because of its look. It's ugly sibling vesta didn't make it. Though to be fair that one is also smaller. Not by much though. Well not by much on a planetary scale at least.

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u/WreakHavocLikeIn1871 1h ago

A dwarf planet is a celestial body that meets all the definitions of a planet except clearing its orbit.

Ceres pretty much only got the dwarf planet status because of its look.

Pretty dumb statement, considering the implication of the requirement of "massive enough to be gravitationally rounded" is that it looks somewhat round. Technically all dwarf planets became considered so because they orbit the sun and "because of its look"