Why “planets” is being discussed
The most recent Hacker News stories and comments contributing to this topic's mentions.
The Earth-Moon system is certainly anomalous within our Solar System. There is no such equivalent among the three other rocky planets, and while there are large moons around the…
by nephihaha · Sep 1, 2026
That was quite funny. I think my point is that terms are not always as precise as people think they are. As others have stated, there appears to be some kind of spectrum. Some o…
by nephihaha · Sep 1, 2026
I really think dwarf planet is a fine classification. Pluto is a planet, just a really small one. Same with Eris and the other planets in the Kuiper Belt. I don’t know why the p…
by kanemcgrath · Sep 1, 2026
It’s not vague or unimportant. Clearing their orbits literally made them planets because they absorbed the mass of everything they cleared out.
by mr_toad · Sep 1, 2026
There was no do nothing option, the IAU didn't open the can of words. 10 new objects that would be called planets under the old definition were discovered. "Doing nothing" would…
by bryanlarsen · Sep 1, 2026
> Historically and culturally, Pluto is considered a planet. A very brief period of history. Give it 50 years and the number of people who will call it a planet will be close to…
by BeetleB · Sep 1, 2026
Interest
Proportion of Hacker News items mentioning "planets" over time.
Mentions
Total number of Hacker News items mentioning "planets" over time.
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets by the most restrictive definition of the term: the terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young protostar orbited by a protoplanetary disk. Planets grow in this disk by the gradual accumulation of material driven by gravity, a process called accretion. Read more on Wikipedia