"As a planet, Pluto has always been on oddball. Its composition is like a comet’s. Its elliptical orbit is tilted 17 degrees from the orbits of the other planets...But Pluto continued to be called a planet, because there was nothing else to call it. Then, in 1992, astronomers found the first Kuiper Belt object. Now they have found hundreds of additional chunks of rock and ice beyond Neptune, including 70 that share orbits similar to Pluto’s, the so called Plutino....A diagram is titled “To be, or not to be, a Planet”, showing Pluto midway point between the planets Earth and Mercury on one side and the not-planets Ceres and 2000 EB 173 on the other; its label stating that “Pluto is bigger than minor planets and has an atmosphere” and yet “Pluto has an unusual orbit and is made largely of ice.”"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Neil deGrasse Tyson in: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, W. W. Norton & Company, Jul 12, 2010
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pluto
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Pluto
27 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Pluto →
Related Quotes
"Merlin has noticed over the years that many people would like to demote Pluto to an “–oid” status. But Pluto is twice…"
"Pluto was discovered in 1930. Pluto was long considered our solar system's ninth planet. But after the discovery of s…"
"NASA's New Horizons will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft's nine and a half…"
"Some facts about Pluto: Pluto is classified as a dwarf planet and is also a member of a group of objects that orbit i…"
"Pluto is the only world named by an 11-year-old girl. In 1930, Venetia Burney of Oxford, England, suggested to her gr…"
"Pluto's moons are named for other mythological figures associated with the underworld. Charon is named for the river …"
"At times during the course of Neptune's orbit, dwarf planet Pluto is actually closer to the Sun, and us, than Neptune…"
"Pluto's dead."
"There is nothing particularly special about that location of the centre of mass. If you were to find yourself at the …"
"Pluto contains about 70 percent rock and 30 percent ice if you measure things by mass. But rock is denser than ice, l…"