When it comes to the number of planets in the solar system, a kindergartener in 2005 and a kindergartener in 2006 would have learned completely different information from one another.
2006 was the year Pluto was downgraded from planet to dwarf planet, a decision that provoked a widespread outcry among a population that likes to romanticize our solar system.
However, numerous objects were added to and removed from the official list of solar system planets long before the Pluto “controversy.” Even a kindergartener in the early 1800s would have known that Ceres was a planet, according to historical records.
So, although the discussion over planethood may seem to be a current astronomical issue, scientists in the nineteenth century were befuddled by the question of how to determine what truly qualifies as a planet in the first place.
Ceres, as previously mentioned, is the first planet to be involved in a squabble with Pluto. Thousands of asteroids and minor planets may be found in the asteroid belt, which is located about halfway between Mars and Jupiter.
On the surface of Ceres, one of the heavenly planets, are minerals such as clay and carbonates, as well as ice formed from frozen water ice.
The planet Ceres is an unusual world, to be sure: since it is not fully frozen and because it is coated in saltwater, scientists think it may be home to microscopic life of some kind. Ceres stands in sharp contrast to Pluto, which is located on the other side of the solar system and has a surface that is completely covered in ice.
In addition, unlike Ceres is a dreary monochrome grey, Pluto’s hues vary from white and black to a vibrant orange, depending on the light.
But Ceres and Pluto have one very crucial characteristic: they were both considered planets at one point in time, but astronomers later altered their minds about that. It all boils down to scale, which, in the case of planetary science, is quite important to consider.
Take a trip back in time to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Earlier this year, an Italian priest and astronomer called Giuseppe Piazzi at the Palermo Observatory provided a solution to a nearly three-decade-old question: Why did the orbits of Mars and Jupiter imply that a planet existed between them even though no such planet had been discovered?
After claiming that he had discovered a “star” that had shifted from its place in the Taurus constellation on January 1, 1801, Piazzi seemed to have provided a solution to this issue. Scientists quickly determined that this had to be the missing planet and thought that the situation had been rectified.
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