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[–] 2 points 4 days ago (1 child)

Planet is in the name, but it's there in the same way "democratic" is in the name of various dictatorships, or "socialist" is in the term "Nazi".

A dwarf planet is not a type of planet. "Dwarf Planet" is its own category of solar system object, not a subtype. It's the same way that comets and asteroids are "minor planets".

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago

    If you want Pluto to be a planet with no modifier adjective, you can't then just have the nine that were taught in schools for decades as "the planets of the Solar system", because we've discovered several out there beyond Neptune that qualify in the same way that Pluto does.

    Most pro-Pluto arguments boil down to "there are nine because I was taught nine and nothing will ever change that (but maybe I could be convinced to allow one extra one at the end because the newspapers love a good planet X story)".

    The mnemonics, whatever they'd be (or become) would need to account for the letters MVEMCJSUNOPSHQMGES and there would be the expectation that it could change at any minute if something new is discovered due to the rate of progress that simply didn't exist when the nine were set in stone.

    And most arguments against Ceres being in the list would rule out Pluto for the same reason (and there's at least one that would qualify Ceres and not Pluto - orbiting along the ecliptic.)

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