Flexi Says: From the time it was discovered in 1930 until the early 2000s, Pluto was considered the ninth planet. When astronomers first located Pluto, the telescopes were not as good, so Pluto and its moon, Charon, were seen as one much larger object. With better telescopes, astronomers realized that Pluto was much smaller than they had thought. In 1992, Pluto’s orbit was recognized to be part of the Kuiper belt. With more than 200 million Kuiper belt objects, Pluto has failed the test of clearing other bodies out of its orbit. Pluto has a minor planet designation of 134340.
