The Rulebook
There are three special rules that make something a planet:
- It has to orbit the Sun (like Earth).
- It has to be big enough to be rounded by its own gravity (like Saturn).
- It must have cleared its path around the Sun, meaning it's the main player in its neighborhood.
Dwarf planets are like planets who didn't fully clean up their space, they're still important, just not part of the planet club.
Examples
- A planet is like the main kid in class who cleans up after everyone else, while a dwarf planet is like the friend who plays nearby but doesn't clean up.
- Imagine Earth as the biggest kid in the park, it has no other big kids around to compete with. Pluto, on the other hand, shares its space with many smaller icy friends.
- If planets are solo stars in the sky, dwarf planets are more like constellations that share their space.
See also
- What If We Could Live on Mars?
- What's the Difference Between a Comet and an Asteroid?
- Why Do We See the Same Side of the Moon?
- What If the Moon Was Made of Cheese?
- What Causes a Solar Eclipse Exactly?
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Categories: Space · planets· dwarf planets· solar system · Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.