What is the minimum Planetary Discriminant (Hp) value required for an object to meet the orbital clearing criterion for planetary status?

Answer

Greater than 100.

The threshold set for achieving planetary status via the Planetary Discriminant (Hp) metric is surprisingly strict, requiring a value exceeding 100. This threshold signifies that the mass of the body itself must be more than one hundred times greater than the combined mass of every other object sharing its orbital path. This high requirement acknowledges that orbits are rarely perfectly empty, even for recognized planets like Earth or Jupiter, which retain some smaller associated bodies; the key is overwhelming mass superiority, represented mathematically by Hp being strictly greater than 100.

What is the minimum Planetary Discriminant (Hp) value required for an object to meet the orbital clearing criterion for planetary status?

#Videos

Clearing the neighbourhood - YouTube

Spaceorbitsatellitedebriscleared