Our Ex Planet X

This blog post is brought to you in the memory of Ex-Planet X aka Pluto (Not the Disney dog, he is fine!). Growing up in the 90's we were told we have nine planets. My school teacher told us an acronym. "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets-MVEMJSUNP", So the order of planets was on my finger tips. 

Until one day in the August of 2006, the International Astronomical Union declared that Pluto is not a planet any longer. The IAU imposed new rules for a heavenly body to be regarded as a planet.

• It needs to be in orbit around the Sun – Check!
• It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape – Check! 
• It needs to have “cleared the neighbourhood” of its orbit – Oh Crap!

So, just like that, an era ended. We often find ourselves lost in thoughts, of the time when Pluto was a planet, on the verge of crying. It has been a decay since the "break up", still cannot believe it. *Sigh* Now, Pluto is just a Dwarf Planet.

It is not a secret that many of us haven't quite moved on after our first Cosmic-Solar-Planetary Breakup. In case you are one of those people who has cried a river, watched "Love Actually" thousand times and listened to "Unbreak my Heart" on repeat and still not over the Pluto, then I am here to get you the ice cream, cuddle up with you as we read this post about our Ex PlanetX.

Let us take a walk down the memory lane of our disastrous heartbreak with our misfit beloved Ex PlanetX. Every time I hear a new planet X is "maybe" spotted I roll my eyes and think well it won't be as good as the Ex-Planet X was. Literary engraved with love and loyalty. How could anything ever be as good as our Ex-planet X, Pluto? 

Though we must understand it is over and it was never meant to be ...


Going Down The Memory Lane
It was in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh first saw our dear Pluto. However, in 1978, we made it "Spacebook official" that is, it was formally declared Pluto a Planet of The solar system and it was a hell of a ride. You see, we had a star-crossed prophecy to be united in a relation of Planet-Ship. It was in 1846, a wise man named Percival Lowell, after the discovery of Neptun, made a "prophecy" that a legendary Planet X is to be found. Since the orbit of Neptune and Uranus was wobbly, that indicated there was still an undiscovered planet in the outer Solar System. So, Lowell suggested there was a Planet out there to explain the wobbly orbit and motion of Uranus and Neptun (I totally intend the Pun). He called in a quest to find the "Planet-X", as the naming of a planet is the prerogative of the astronomer finding it. So our beloved Planet was referred as Planet-X in the fable. When Clyde Tombaugh saw a tiny dot of light he thought it was "the One". However in truth, what Clyde had found, was not big enough to explain those wobbling perturbations. Furthermore, they called the search off anyway,  calling that tiny dot "Pluto" and crowning it with the official status of the legendary PlanetX. Pluto was a planet, 1930-2006 (um! not that long time in the context of Planet-ship, though). 

New Horizons spacecraft's Flyby Stalking
In 2015, The new Horizons Spacecraft flew by Pluto. The mission was intended to understand the Pluto's system better. We saw our Ex love and with teary eyes, our heart was filled with love and our internet with memes. What can I say, it is all too fresh you see. We were still struggling to "move on". 

Reconsidering Taking It Back
After the flyby, many considered that we should take Pluto back. Although, with that proposal, we will have to take all the Draft Planets (like pluto) under the wing of Planet-Ship. Honestly, that will also make learning planets of the solar system a complex task. Also reconsidering and taking back an Ex always disappoints, It did not work out the first time for a reason! #ProTip, we learned it the hard way. 

Looking For a Replacement
So the legendary quest to find the Planet X was not over because the "Not-Big-Enough" Pluto was never the legendary Planet X. Theories about the mysterious Planet X is all over the internet. Some claim that the calculations by Lowell were faulty and there was never any "PlanetX". Some say NASA is hiding the PlanetX because the Bible [...] well let's leave the idiosyncratic fairy-tails aside. Long story short there is a lot of conspiracy theories on the internet.

So, recently NASA has announced that they are quite hopeful to find the promised PlanetX. The motion of many asteroids, that gets dislodged from the Kepler belt and fly into the solar system indicate strongly that there is indeed a Planet X. Multiple occurrences of this phenomenon have bolstered the evidence pertaining the PlanetX. Evidence are indicating that the planetX is ten times the size of Earth and have an orbit around the Sun that is about 15000 Earth years. Only the time will tell if Planet X will be found. The scientists studying the phenomenon at the Subaru Observatory in Hawaii believe they'll have an answer in 5 years.

Well, that will be a new start. However, even if the Planet X is a myth and we never find it. We are better off with the memories of the time when The solar System had Nine Planets, and Ninth Planet was Pluto.

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