• Question: is there more then 9 planets in are solar system

    Asked by dantheman to Daniel, Jon, Louise, Sharon on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by darceyxxx, doggirl.
    • Photo: Daniel Richardson

      Daniel Richardson answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Yes. There is Planet Hollywood

    • Photo: Jon Copley

      Jon Copley answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Well, it kind of depends on what you call a “planet”. Pluto used to be officially a planet, but then astronomers made it officially a “dwarf planet” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet ). And there are at least three more “dwarf planets” out there beyond Pluto. One of them, called Eris, is actually bigger than Pluto, and it was found in 2005.

    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Well, actually in our solar system there are only 8 planets, ever since poor old pluto got demoted!!!

    • Photo: Louise Dash

      Louise Dash answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      It depends what you class as a planet, really.

      Since 2006 there have only been 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Astronomers decided Pluto isn’t really a planet and it’s now classed as a “dwarf planet” – some of them are still arguing about this though! There are other dwarf planets too – Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea and maybe others we don’t know about yet. So if you include these, then yes, there’s more than 9.

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