this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
47 points (100.0% liked)
chat
8422 readers
160 users here now
Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.
As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.
Thank you and happy chatting!
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Dwarf planets don't get included in the solar system models. That's the limit of most people's understanding.
The problem is if you include all the dwarf planets the list more than doubles and really you should include most of the moons too, Pluto is the biggest dwarf planet and it’s like, 1/3rd the size of our moon and 1/6th the mass. It’s really really tiny.
Eris is the most massive and initially thought to be the largest too, but now it's known to be slightly smaller than Pluto. It was discovered in 2005, it initially appearing bigger than Pluto, plus the discovery of many similar, smaller objects nearby is what prompted the discussion of reclassification.
The universe is messy and any definition is going to encounter edge cases: planet-or-star edge cases became "brown dwarfs" and now there are also "sub-brown dwarfs" for its edge cases.