Originally Posted by: z0s0_jpshould planets be classified as planets only if they reside inside the orbit of gas planets :rolleyes: discuss..........

No. They've found gas giant planets around other stars in much closer orbits compared to ours, which made them question the mechanics of the formation of the solar system, and how they assumed it would be the same for others. So if they found an earth-like planet beyond the giant, but still relatively close as we are, you'd still have to call it a planet. Thus our definition would have to apply in other systems as well.

And yeah, I prolly agree that Pluto doesn't share much of the same qualities that we associate with the other 8. But in that case, maybe we should also make a new sub-catagory for the gas giants as well. I mean, make Jupiter a little bigger and it would ignite into a star itself. Not to mention how many moons it has...it's almost a mini solar system. In the end, I don't really care about the linguistics of it all.