Pluto: Dwarf Planets In Our Solar System

Discovered in 1930, by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto was thought to be the farthest, newest and smallest known planet in our solar system. Pluto, for 75 years would be thought of as the ninth planet in our solar system. It wasn’t until the discovery of Eris in 2005 that astronomers began to question what defines a planet. After the discovery of Eris and other celestial objects such as MakeMake, Pluto along these new discoveries have been defined as dwarf planets. They are categorized as dwarf planets because they are smaller compared to the other planets and with their size, are not able to clear other objects out of its path. Since the discovery of Eris, the largest known dwarf planet, the number of planets in our solar system has been cut down to eight. Other than there being one less planet, another discovery was the new category known as Dwarf planets, also called Plutoids. Although Pluto is known as the founder of dwarf planets, Eris holds the title as the largest of the Dwarf planets but Pluto has …show more content…
He noticed the unusual wobbles in Uranus’s and Neptune’s orbit and thought that it was being caused by the gravitational pull of an unknown celestial object. The proposed idea of there being a possible ninth planet let Lowell to calculate for an approximate location of where the ninth planet would be. A whole decade of searching had led Lowell nowhere. After nineteen years, Tombaugh using there Lowell’s calculations led him to discover the small planet that would be known as Pluto. Since Pluto was much small than Neptune and Uranus, the question of whether it’s mass was enough to cause the wobbles in Uranus and Neptune’s orbit. Twenty-eight years later, when Pluto’s biggest moon, Charon, was discovered they were able to conclude that both Pluto and Charon’s mass combined was what was causing the wobbles in Uranus’s and Neptune’s