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I bounced this off my colleagues & they didn’t like it, but FWIW: if the 100s of planets in our solar system are divided into 2 groups based on what planet growth stage they experienced, you get 11 in the top group (the oligarchs). Ceres is out, but Pluto, Eris & Triton are in./1
2/ The oligarchs of our solar system are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris, and Triton. The other dwarf planets are all protoplanets (never were in oligarchic growth). Triton was an oligarch before being captured as a moon of Neptune.
3/ We don’t know if Triton formed closer or farther from the Sun than Pluto, so we don’t know where it goes on this list. We can leave it off the list entirely since it is no longer a primary (I.e., sun-orbiting) planet. Or it can be appended on the end? Or tied with Pluto as #9?
4/ But in all three of those options, Pluto actually does come out as #9 in the list of major planets (defining “major” as the oligarchs instead of the orbit clearers). So there!
