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xkcd #3063: Planet Definitions (xkcd.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Under the 'has cleared its orbital neighborhood' and 'fuses hydrogen into helium' definitions, thanks to human activities Earth technically no longer qualifies as a planet but DOES count as a star.

https://explainxkcd.com/3063/

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Ultratraditionalist is messed up too. The sun and moon were considered planets when geocentrism was king.

It comes from the fact that the word planet comes from the Greek and means wanderer. Any celestial body that wandered around compared to the stars was considered a planet.