Is Pluto still a planet?
I heard there's a debate about whether Pluto is really a planet. I grew up learning nine planets and now scientists want to demote Pluto? Why? It's been a planet since 1930. What changed? Is this going to be in new textbooks? My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas doesn't work without Pluto.
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There's a great explanation of this on the HowStuffWorks website, and the NASA site has good material too if it's space-related. Both are written for normal people, not scientists, so you won't get lost in jargon.
4 Answers
There's a great explanation of this on the HowStuffWorks website, and the NASA site has good material too if it's space-related. Both are written for normal people, not scientists, so you won't get lost in jargon.
Don't feel bad for not getting this right away. Some of the smartest people in history spent their whole lives on questions like this. The fact that you're curious enough to ask puts you ahead of most people. Keep asking why.
Be careful about 'common sense' here — a lot of science is counterintuitive. The whole point of doing experiments is that the universe often doesn't work the way our gut tells us it should. The Earth feels flat and stationary, after all.
Scientists love this kind of question because it's how real discoveries start. 'That's funny...' is supposedly how a lot of breakthroughs begin. Keep that curiosity — it's worth more than memorizing facts for a test.
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