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Pluto Lost Its Status : Pluto And Pluto

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Topic 7; What is a name? In 2006 Pluto lost its status as a planet (of our solar system) after a heated scientific debate that had gone on for years. What were the events leading up to Pluto’s demotion? Why was there a problem and why was it such a big deal? What are the implications for the future of other planets in our solar system?

Introduction
The main focus of this paper will be focused on the impact of the demotion of Pluto and what implications this has for future planets. Pluto was discovered on the 18th of February 1930 at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh (space.com 2013). The Observatory was given the right to name the planet, they received over 1,000 suggestions from all over the globe however, the members of the Observatory made the decision to name it Pluto after the Greek god ‘Pluto’ god of the underworld (Top10archive 2015). Pluto was known as the smallest planet in the solar system and the ninth planet from the sun, being 5.9 billion kilometers away (universe today 2016). It is 30 to 50 times as far from the sun as Earth and if travelling at the speed of light it would take 327 minutes to reach Pluto from Earth (google search 2016). It was the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt.

Discussion
After decades of Pluto being a planet, astronomers began wondering whether Pluto might just be the first of many small, icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt (BBC news 2015). it wasn’t until

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