Pluto is a Plutoid
Pluto was a planet, before 24 Aug 2006.
Then it was demoted on that day, to a dwarf planet.
Now the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has decided on a new name for dwarf planets like Pluto – the Plutoids.
Definition?
Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun and further away than Neptune and assume a near-spherical shape and have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit.
Plutoids’ moons are not plutoids, even if they are a sphere.
Currently the members are Pluto and Eris. Ceres, another dwarf planet, is not a plutoid because it doesn’t locate beyond Neptune. It is located between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt.
Plutoid… what a name! Why not “Erisoid”, since Eris is the larger of the two.
Whatever…
My Dark Sky 
[…] also a trans-Neptunian object, it is also been officially classifed as a dwarf planet, and also a plutoid as well. It is the fourth member of the dwarf planet category after Pluto, Eris and Ceres, and the […]
Congrats Makemake, you are now no longer just a number « My Dark Sky said this on July 21, 2008 at 12:03 am |