Re: I'm not convinced that the new definition excludes Pluto...

Mark Smith <emarksmi@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

From everything I've read,
Pluto's orbit is stable AND there are no other objects that exist in
it's orbital area of influence other than Neptune.

There are many other objects in Pluto's vicinity. Approximately 25%
of all known trans-Neptunian objects share the same 3:2 resonance with
Neptuns as Pluto does and are sometimes referred to as "Plutinos"
(see http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jewitt/kb/plutino.html)

Finally, look at the KBO's discovered so far. We haven't found many
of them, but we are assuming that the Kupier Belt will look similar to
the Asteroid Belt.

Actually, more than 1000 are now known.

So far as we know, these bodies orbit
in a path an AU wide.

No, the zone is _much_ wider than 1 AU. If you include the so-called
scattered disc objects (SCO, such as e.g. 2003 UB313) they extent at
least out to 100 AU (and perhaps to several 100s AU). Even classical
Kuiper belt objects (or "cubewanos", after 1992 QB1) cover a belt
several AUs wide (most having semimajor axis between 42 and 48 AU).

pej
--
Per Erik Jorde
.