# Pluto expelled, what about a smaller body? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 27, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711 "2014-03-27T18:44:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711/21 "2014-03-29T03:46:49Z")
Yeah, but ice is a mineral, which means it’s a kind of rock. At the proper temperatures, of course. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711/22 "2014-03-29T05:28:22Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > As we all know Pluto was expelled from our planetary system Oh no! Now poor little Pluto has to wander the Galaxy, homeless, with a sign reading “Will clean out your planetary neighborhood for food”. So what happens to Pluto’s family of satellites? Are they going to tag along as Pluto stands at the interstellar turnpike offramp with his sign? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711/23 "2014-03-29T11:07:07Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Oh no! Now poor little Pluto has to wander the Galaxy, homeless, with a sign reading “Will clean out your planetary neighborhood for food”. So what happens to Pluto’s family of satellites? Are they going to tag along as Pluto stands at the interstellar turnpike offramp with his sign? Pluto knows where it’s not wanted, so Pluto and all it’s little satellites children will be heading off to a new star where it will be finally accepted and loved and given a rightful and joyful place in it’s new star system orbit - that’s right Pluto will be given a place in the Goldilocks zone, no longer relegated to just to wander the icy and rocky outer edge of our solar system. Pluto will be the cradle of a new civilization and will be in a much better place. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711/24 "2014-03-29T11:17:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A resonance clearly can’t eliminate an object as a planet, since Venus has a resonance of sorts with Earth: Whenever the two planets approach each other most closely in their orbits, Venus always shows us the same face. From [Venus - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus#Orbit_and_rotation) > [@](#): > > The 584-day average interval between successive close approaches to Earth is almost exactly equal to 5 Venusian solar days,[78] but the hypothesis of a spin–orbit resonance with Earth has been discounted. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711/25 "2014-03-29T11:21:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Personally, I think we should just ditch the concept of “planet” entirely, and replace it with three separate terms, “rockball”, “gasball”, and “iceball”. Earth and Ceres (both rockballs) have a lot more in common with each other than either one does with Jupiter (a gasball). Under this classification system, Pluto can rest secure in being one of the largest iceballs, without having to argue that it belongs with things it is so obviously unlike. Great idea. But…What about asteroids a lot smaller than Ceres? Little rockballs? It would take some getting used to to think of Earth and Ceres as sharing a major category, but I think that’s cool. Makes you want to learn more about Ceres, and make it a goal for a spacecraft visit (manned or not). ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711/26 "2014-03-29T11:30:36Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Makes you want to learn more about Ceres, and make it a goal for a spacecraft visit (manned or not). Thank you, Easter Bunny! [Dawn spacecraft to visit Ceres in 2015.](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft)) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711/27 "2014-03-29T14:28:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **JKellyMap** : > > Great idea. But…What about asteroids a lot smaller than Ceres? Little rockballs? Rockchunks. Aside from Ceres, and arguably Pallas and Vesta, all of the asteroids are too small to be balls, and do not have a “planet-like” structure. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711/28 "2014-03-30T01:59:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Rockchunks. Aside from Ceres, and arguably Pallas and Vesta, all of the asteroids are too small to be balls, and do not have a “planet-like” structure. And, it turns out, Ceres probably has so much ice, maybe “rockball” isn’t the best word for it, after all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-expelled-what-about-a-smaller-body/684711.md?page=1)