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Is Pluto to be given back its planet status?

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ANI London
Last Updated : Oct 03 2014 | 6:05 PM IST

It may be possible that Pluto gets re-instated as a planet as Harvard-Smithsonian Center recently came to a conclusion in a debate that it was indeed a planet.

Back in 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), had stripped the 9th planet in our solar system off its status, saying that the "dwarf planet" was too small have the required gravitational punch, with a radius of about 750 miles, and circumference of about 4,500 miles, which made it even smaller than the moon the Independent reported.

However, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center recently conducted a debate, letting the audience vote, who wanted the tiny planet back.

Dimitar Sasselov, director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, argued that the criteria for planethood was sun-centric, excluding planets beyond our solar system, or so-called "exoplanets."

Sasselov added that a planet was the "smallest spherical lump of matter that formed around stars or stellar remnants.

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First Published: Oct 03 2014 | 5:52 PM IST

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