Diagnostic Test 1 Practice Test
•24 Questions
- The object must be in orbit around the sun.
- The object must be massive enough to be rounded into a sphere by its own gravity.
- The object must have "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit.
Because Pluto is much smaller than the other objects in its orbit, it fails to meet the third condition and has since been known as a "dwarf planet". Some scientists have gone so far as to suggest that Pluto may actually be one of the many moons of its neighboring planet, Neptune.
When Pluto was first discovered in 1930, astronomers estimated that it may be as large as earth and thus were confident that it was, in fact, a planet. As our ability to gather information about outer space continues to improve through more powerful telescopes and space probes, scientists are now able to use the new, more accurate information they receive to accurately classify objects in space. While some still argue that Pluto meets the accepted criteria to be known as a planet, for the time being, conventional scientific thinking will hold that our solar system only has eight planets.
The writer places the word "planet" in quotation marks to indicate that .
- The object must be in orbit around the sun.
- The object must be massive enough to be rounded into a sphere by its own gravity.
- The object must have "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit.
Because Pluto is much smaller than the other objects in its orbit, it fails to meet the third condition and has since been known as a "dwarf planet". Some scientists have gone so far as to suggest that Pluto may actually be one of the many moons of its neighboring planet, Neptune.
When Pluto was first discovered in 1930, astronomers estimated that it may be as large as earth and thus were confident that it was, in fact, a planet. As our ability to gather information about outer space continues to improve through more powerful telescopes and space probes, scientists are now able to use the new, more accurate information they receive to accurately classify objects in space. While some still argue that Pluto meets the accepted criteria to be known as a planet, for the time being, conventional scientific thinking will hold that our solar system only has eight planets.
The writer places the word "planet" in quotation marks to indicate that .