Is Pluto a planet?
Pluto was discovered in 1930 and was named the ninth planet in our solar system. At least that’s what most people know. What they don’t know is that in 2006, Pluto was demoted to “dwarf planet” in the Kuiper belt, by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Why the change of status? Because Pluto was found to a round object that shared its orbit with other entities, which makes it…not a planet. Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel explained that “the simple fact is that Pluto was misclassified when it was first discovered; it was never on the same footing as the other eight worlds.”
