Just a note (that you probably should put it there) now that we have an accurate measure of Pluto, we do know Pluto is Bigger than the other Dwarf Planets. Also, we did classify Pluto as a planet and never had this weird conversation about Dwarf Planets until 10 years ago, because we really thought it was about the size of the earth and over the years we just got better at measuring it.
This video was so incredibly educational that I was able to share it with the students we work with as a very concise explanation of what dwarf planets are, what dwarf planets there are in our solar system, and why it is so hard to categorise our neighbours.
I love how he mentioned that there may be mars sized dwarf planets out there beyond the Kuiper Belt and now astronomers are theorizing there's an actual 9th planet out there beyond the Kuiper Belt.
So we've reclassified the planets. Can we please do the same thing about the moons? It's unusual to say that both Titan and Deimos are equally moon like.
+Sean Hiseman anything that orbits a planet is a moon hence the name satellite, objects like the ISS would still be a moon but its artificial hence the name artificial satellite so in reality Earth could have millions or maybe trillions of moons.
that is true, but the definition of a moon is a 'large' object that orbits another object that isn't a star. By large, I mean larger than say a house... because if you say all things orbiting planets are moons, then Saturn's rings are made of BILLIONS of moons.
Damn! This was just packed full of very useful dwarf planet information! I love dwarf planets, so this was right up my alley. Another very awesome video!
This video suggests it's possible that, statistically, there could be a Mars size planet out side the kuiper belt. Last year NASA, or another organization, announced a theory that there is quite possibly a planet sized object beyond the belt. This is due to changes in the belt that has to be caused by a gravitational effect.
I kinda like the fact that this video about dwarf planets came out 5 years ago is more educational about celestial bodies than some high school science classes today. XD
it's amazing to think we know all of this just by looking at the sky, even as we are confines to earth. Objects at distances unimaginably far away discovered just by looking at the sky
Pluto the dog was named after the dwarf planet. The first instance of Pluto as the name for the dog came several months after the discovery of the then-planet. Pluto the dwarf planet was named after the Roman God of the Dead (also known as Hades, the Greek God of the Dead.)
I'd really like to see this topic revisited by you. There have been so many revolations and new discoveries in this field, would love to see a video from you about these new discoveries.
+Artifexian, you produce great informative and entertaining video content. I may have already said that in other comments, but let me tell you that once more - JOB WELL DONE!
could you please make a video about how would life be like on a habitable moon on a gas planet's orbit? Like, how would the weather, the tectonic plates, the different cycles like the days be affected? I'm reaaaally interested in that kind of stuff
The relegation of Pluto to the status of dwarf planet is one of those things that has never stuck in my mind. It keeps tripping me up. The sun rises in the east. The earth orbits the sun. The moon orbits the earth. There are 9 planets in the solar system. Even though I remember that Pluto is nor a planet anymore I still think that we have 9 planets.
Dear Pluto Hello it's me Ceres, I was downgraded from a planet to an asteroid over 150 years ago so please, stop whinging about you not being a planet any more Love Ceres
Pluto is the name of the Roman god of the Underworld. albeit its naming was decided by contest and a young girl's choice won, so she could've been thinking of Pluto the dog. but i like to think its the Roman Mythos's influence as the reason it has that name.
Artifexian Yes, on August 24th 2006 the IAU resolution created three main conditions and pluto failed at it because the mass want enoug. As wikipedia says : " The IAU further resolved that Pluto be classified in the simultaneously created dwarf planet category, and that it act as the prototype for the plutoid category of trans-Neptunian objects, in which it would be separately, but concurrently, classified."[146] Wiki also says : "Discovered in 1930, Pluto was originally classified as the ninth planet from the Sun."
FYI pluto was named after the roman god of death, Pluto, which is also why its moons are named Styx, Nyx, Charon and Hydra.... though i'd have named Hydra Kerberos.
And now we Know Pluto is slightly bigger than all the other dwarf planets, makes me wonder if all those changes would even exist if we did know that before.
No. Eris makes Pluto look like an M&M. If Pluto was called a Planet, then Eris is DEFINITELY a planet. Also there's way more too it than the size of a planet to be classified as a planet.
Juno actually looks like a face? Jeez, I think the universe has a good way of making dwarf planets and asteroids unique... making them look like they have faces or making them look like everyday objects.
This is true. Reddit latched onto this immediately. Had intended that to be a sarcastic remake...but it did not come across like that. This will be included in a upcoming corrections video. I do not wish to propagate fasle info. Shall be remedied. Thanks for pointing this out.
at 5:25 is it your drawing or did you mix up the numbers for pulto's and eris' diameter(or circumference it wasn't clear which), i'm just a stickler for for thing's like number matching up to relative sizes.
Hidden in all this debate about Pluto is that the IAU changed the word "planet" from a noun to an address. The definition states that a planet travels around "the sun", not "a star", so homeostatically round objects orbiting other stars aren't planets anymore either. It would have been better, if they wanted to exclude Pluto, if they would have separated rocky worlds from icy worlds.
There is actually a moon orbiting MakeMake known as MK2, MK2 is one of the darkest things in the solar system. And Pluto was named after a goddess, and the person who named Pluto was 11 years old!
Actually, though they are "Dwarf planets" they aren't; they're the Synonym for "Planemos" making them classified as "Planets" because they have gained enough mass to have moons; or is sphere-like in shape.
How can the shapes of such strange orbits be calculated if they take so long to be covered by the planet/object? For example Sedna's at 6:00, it could be any shape, but they've determined that it's that long and they even calculated the period.
Orbital Physics baby. let me explain. The 2 most important points in an orbit is it's periex (closest approach to the center of mass) and the apex (farthest point from the center of mass). As an object orbits it speeds up as it approaches it's periex and slows as it reaches its apex. Sedna is speeding up, meaning it's approaching it's periex. The angle it's moving at shows it's near the periex. so we just have to do the math of how a object moving at this point, angle, speed, mass, and acceleration, and distance would make it orbit around the mass.
I remember hearing somewhere that, since the word “planet” is so archaic and has such an inconsistent definition, it may one day be phased out. I personally am all for this. If Pluto can’t be a planet, *nothing can!*
If I were classifying objects in space here is how I would classify them(and in my fictional universe all these things are true): Stars: Bright objects that make their own light via nuclear fusion Asteroids: Tiny rocks that orbit independently of any planets but not independently of each other(kind of like how the ice particles in Saturn's rings orbit at a different speed than the planet itself but gravity both towards each other and towards the moons of Saturn makes every particle orbit at the same speed so the ring as a whole has an individual orbit, not every particle) Moons: Big or small rocks that orbit around a larger planet without affecting the planet's orbit much(so barycenter inside the planet) and that are not in a ring but in either a gap between rings or completely outside the ring system if the planet even has rings Planet: Any rock(whether it be completely rock(terrestrial) or a rocky core surrounded by gas) orbiting around a star that isn't an asteroid(comets are like icy asteroids) a moon or another star And thus the term Dwarf planet would be a subclassification of Planet, not a different classification. And here is how I would define dwarf planet: Any planet that is smaller than Mercury So those hypothetical dwarf planets that are 3x, 4x, or even 5x the size of Pluto would not be dwarf planets in my universe. Those would just be planets and thus have all the classifications of planets(a gas dwarf could be of a similar size as Mars)
sedna has streched that long cause of a masive thing pull him out 1. the eliptical orbit of sedna is caused of jupiter and satern pushed the orbits 2.A MASSIVE object like 5-10x bigger than jupiter is out there on the solar system further than the kuipter belt that pulls sedna OUT through the kuipter belt 3. it must be a star or a BIG PLANET
Pretty decent video, despite some scientific inaccuracies. The IAU definition is very flawed because we are likely to find larger objects the size of Mars way out there, and calling THAT a dwarf planet is not a line I think many would cross. The fact is that there are way more “Plutos” than “Earths” and “Jupiters” combined. There may be many more in the deep depths of the Oort Cloud and the number of planets is only going to increase. 🪐
with the new horizons mission in 2015, it has been found that pluto is actually larger than eris. But it is more related to Kuiper Belt objects than the actual planets so... sry pluto
it's funny how they now believe Pluto might be five times bigger than what they though due to the New Horizons probe. I wonder how much bigger the other Plutids are.
What I don't get is why Mars, Venus, Earth, and Mercury all have more in common with dwarf planets than Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and yet are still grouped together with the latter rather than the former.
+Ben Thomason It isn't, though. Why aren't we classified as chimpanzees? They use tools like us, they can do basic human actions. They can stand up right? So why aren't we classified as Chimps? It's because there is differences and way more things we can do beyond Chimps. So for Planets, the same. Dwarf Planets are round most of the time like Planets, the orbit the sun, etc. yet there are things to Planets that Dwarf Planets can't fit into. Pluto has an odd orbit, it's more related to comets. Pluto is also in a lock with its Moon, meaning that Pluto itself is a moon to the other.
pluto is called after the roman name for hades... all planets are called after the roman gods Mercury comes from Mercurus (messenger of the gods), jupiter (the "king"god and ruler of the sky and heaven), pluto (the god of the afterlife and underworld), Mars (the god of war) and juno(ik a moon) (was the wife of jupiter)
