Pluto Might Be Bigger Than Eris

astroengine writes "Look out, the battle of the dwarf planets is about to re-ignite! During last weekend's rare occultation of a star by Eris, astronomers managed to gain one of the most accurate measurements of Eris' physical size. When three Chilean telescopes watched the star blink out of sight, astronomers were shocked to find that Eris is actually a lot smaller than originally thought. So small that it might be smaller than Pluto. On speaking with Discovery News, Eris' discoverer Mike Brown said, 'While everyone is more interested in the "mine is bigger than yours" aspect, the real science is the shockingly large density of Eris.' The mass of Eris is well known, so this means the object is more dense than Pluto. Does this mean the two mini-worlds have different compositions? Did they evolve differently? In light of this finding, is the underlying argument for Pluto being demoted from the planetary club on wobbly ground?"

Comments

still not a planet per the IAU

[heptapod]

Size does not matter. Clearing its path matters. Per the IAU Pluto has not cleared its orbital path and can not be considered a planet by the current definition.

Re:Pluto controversy

[sznupi]

At least we can be certain it will pass - I don't see any people lamenting that Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta have lost their planetary status.

Status which they had, for half a century after their discovery. Similar to Pluto.

(for that matter, the same applies to the Sun - it was also classified as a planet at some point)