this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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It doesn't help that planet has such an incredibly vague definition. Earth is a planet but so is Jupiter but other than being spherical they don't have anything in common. In terms of similarities, Pluto is much more like Earth then Jupiter is like Earth, at least Pluto has a solid surface.
It's not vague at all. It's a classification that needs to meet three criteria. The lack of this classification is why it was taught that pluto was a planet, but once these things were formalized in 2006 it became clear that pluto no longer met the criteria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAU_definition_of_planet
Yes and I know that Pluto fails the final test, although it's a bit difficult to really to say in what context that matters, because it's in the Kiper belt which is incredibly diffuse anyway.
But actually astrophysicists have long since said that the established definition of planet is far too vague and needs tighter definitions