Overview
About the event
Many people are fascinated by outer space and its many mysteries. Earth�??s own solar system went through an important and, for some people, very dramatic change in classification in 2006. This was the time when Pluto was demoted from being considered as a full sized planet to being a dwarf planet.
The process of demoting Pluto began in 2005 when a dwarf planet named Eris was discovered in a region outside of Neptune�??s orbit in the same belt as Pluto. Because this dwarf planet, Eris, was actually larger than Pluto, it created complications with classification. This was when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided officially that Pluto needed to be downgraded from a full sized planet, which took place on August 24, 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic.
This reclassification decision was highly disputed by a number of astronomers, claiming that there were not enough representatives at the convention. Only some 5% of the world�??s astronomers voted on the reclassification project. One influential astronomer claimed that if Pluto was reclassified, then Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune all have their own nearby asteroids and this is a contradiction.
Even with the controversy that surrounds the reclassification of this planet to a dwarf planet, Pluto Demoted Day now takes place every year to mark that very occasion. While sad for fans of the former ninth planet of the solar system, Pluto Demoted Day is an important day for our scientific history and is important to remember.
