this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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xkcd #3063: Planet Definitions (xkcd.com)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd
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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] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Many million years is nothing in geological or astronomical timescales. Any (small) body with a heat source that short is dead cold by know. The solar system is 4.6 billion years old and the formation of planets or larger bodys has ended about 4 billion years ago.

And tidal forces mean that a way larger body is close by, like a gas giant, as far as I remember are all known body's with tidal heating moons not planets.