By: Trump Vang

As of today, Pluto stands as a dwarf planet that orbits farther than Neptune. Many describe it as a cold and airless world, one with a year of 248 Earth years. Pluto hasn’t always been like this though, rather filling in a role much bigger than what it is today.

On February 18th, 1930, Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. Previously there were eight planets in the solar system, and many anticipated the surprise of a ninth planet out in the edges of the system. Their suspicions were correct, and Tombaugh’s intense searching through the night sky would find this ‘planet’.

Many had expected the planet to have a similar size to the 8th planet, Neptune, but they were to be disappointed. As more information came about Pluto, estimates on its size soon shrank. From a Neptune sized object, Pluto was downsized to an Earth sized object, then all the way down to being even smaller than Mercury.

Although Pluto’s size had been properly found, it was still considered a planet. Nothing else would change that, until the discovery of another ‘planet’ within that area.

Pluto was in a region, known as the Kuiper belt. This area of the solar system contained many small icy asteroids, orbiting all together in the shape of a belt. The Kuiper Belt also contained other spherical objects, just like Pluto. Though due to the fact that Pluto still stood as the largest out of these objects, it held onto its planetary status.

This was until the discovery of another spherical object, Eris. Pluto and Eris were very similar in size, though Pluto still reigned bigger in the size department. Though once Eris’s weight (mass) was calculated, it was found that Pluto wasn’t exactly the largest in this group of objects anymore.

For some time, many accepted Pluto, Eris, and a few others as planets, but others saw the issue with this. If they kept accepting these celestial objects as ‘planets’, they would just keep finding more, and before they knew it, they would have a multitude of planets to sort through. To combat this, scientists knew they would have to put a stop to this planet
finding.

In 2006, the IAU (International Astronomical Union) set guidelines for classifying planets. There were three rules in specific that were used to determine an object’s classification:

1. The object orbits around the Sun
2. It has enough mass to keep a spherical shape
3. The orbit that the object takes, must be cleared (So, the object orbits by itself, having enough gravitational mass to clear its orbit)

Pluto had passed the first two rules, though its classification as a planet was knocked down by the third rule. Orbiting in the Kuiper Belt, there were trillions of small objects, showing Pluto’s inability to clear its orbit. Due to this, Pluto’s status as a planet was removed.

Ever since that point, there have been just 8 planets in the solar system. Pluto and its other spherical friends were all demoted to the classification under the term, ‘Dwarf Planet’.

More dwarf planets have been discovered ever since the term’s creation. Pluto still stands as one of the largest objects within this classification.

Although not being a planet, the world is still interesting in many aspects. Recently, a spacecraft named New Horizons visited this world, showing its surface and moon system to us. Pluto is truly a fascinating world, showing what beauty can be found, even in the outer stretches of the solar system.

By: Jasmine Williams

There is a glowing crimson, red, and small planet called TOI-5205b. The planet is 285 light years away. The planet is named after TOI-5205 because it’s right next to it. These red planets are only half as hot as the sun. According to ‘CNET’, this is a dwarf planet located in the Milky Way. These dwarf planets are ordinary stars, and have a very long life span. The heat of TOI-5205 is measured to be around 3,227 degrees Celsius, and the sun, 5,526 degrees Celsius.

It is strange that TOI-5205b hosts gas giant planets because normally dwarf planets do not do that. In general, people had thought that sunlike stars host tinier planets that are not their size. “The host star, TOI-5205, is just about four times the size of Jupiter, yet it has somehow managed to form a Jupiter-sized planet, which is quite surprising!” Kanodia, an astronomer, had stated.

In order to create a gas giant planet, the original core had to have enough rocky material. Also, the disk cannot evaporate before a massive center is made, according to Kanodia. Afterwards, a rocky planetary core is made, and gas from the disk has a large amount of gas. Around the core a large amount of gas from the disk is collected, and it soon creates a luminous planet. For gas giants such as Jupiter and TOI-5205b, a known model of planet formation says that in order to create a rocky planetary core, it requires about 10 disk’s of material that Earth masses have. TOI-5205’s original disk had the ingredients to form a Jupiter-like planet, but it’s odd that TOI-5205’s disk had enough ingredients that gas giants used to make a big planet.

TOI-5205b had bypassed all the guardrails. To conclude, Kanodia had stated, “TOI-5205b — while definitely an outlier — isn’t the only one. If so, how frequently do these forbidden planets form?”

For more information, please visit:

● https://scitechdaily.com/astronomers-discover-bizarre-forbidden-planet-that-should-not-e xist/