Plutoids

Do you remember a few years ago when the planet, Pluto, was demoted? Astronomers at the International Astronomical Union decided that it didn’t meet the criteria to be considered a planet, so it was demoted and no longer considered one of the nine planets.

Third graders everywhere rebelled.

Anyway, members of the AIU have now come up with a name for these celestial objects such as Pluto. They’re called “plutoids.”

Plutoids are celestial bodies in our solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune that have enough gravitation to cause them to be spherical. Like Pluto. (There’s one other called Eris which is a little bit bigger plutoid than Pluto but way far out there).

I like that term “plutoid.” I've had friends meet the same criteria.

They’re initially in my inner circle, sometimes causing my own orbit to wobble a bit, but then become distant and insignificant. Occasionally, I’ll detect that these plutoids are still out there, but only if I happen by chance to come across them.

Someone may ask me, “Say, how is X doing?”

I can now say, “I dunno. He became a plutoid.”

I love this term.

I just added it to my spell-check dictionary.