<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Omission:<br />YES: "Pluto is 2 1/2 times the diameter of Ceres"<br />No mention of the KBO Eris here, which is larger than Pluto, although it is mentioned later in another debate point. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />I don't consider that either an error or an omission. The fact sheet was clearly written for kids and their teachers--one point at a time. As you note, the fact sheet DOES give and compare the diameters of Pluto and Eris.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>NO:"Pluto is just an ice ball"<br />I have never heard anyone make that claim.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />I have. Michio Kaku has called it an ice ball on his radio show. Also, Rick Fienberg called it an ice ball on page 8 of the November 2006 issue of Sky & Telescope. In addition, I've heard a lot of ordinary people say that Pluto is mostly ice. In fact, as the fact sheet notes, it's mostly rock. (Frankly, I don't think Pluto's composition matters at all. After all, if Jupiter and Saturn, made mostly of hydrogen and helium, can be planets, why can't an ice ball? But the fact is, Pluto is NOT an ice ball.)<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>YES/NO Concerning pluto as the largest KBO, no mention of the fact that it is one of 30 Plutinos (locked in 2:3 resonance with Neptune) larger than 300 km.<br />This is a specific subset of the KBO's. This ignores the best argument for calling Pluto a plutino rather than a planet.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />My understanding is that there are HUNDREDS of Plutinos--but they are all much smaller than Pluto. The fact sheet DOES address this point when it says that Pluto is an abnormally LARGE member of the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. In fact, as noted there, Pluto is larger than more than 99.9 percent of all Edgeworth-Kuiper belt objects, including all Plutinos. Only Eris is bigger than Pluto.<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In r</font></blockquote>