Posted on 04/29/2026 9:13:56 AM PDT by DFG
NASA chief Jared Isaacman wants to restore Pluto to its former glory.
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) stripped Pluto of its planethood, reclassifying the icy world as a "dwarf planet." The decision was controversial, and not just because it forced schoolchildren around the world to learn a new mnemonic for our solar system's major denizens.
Little Pluto was beloved and remains so, especially in the United States. After all, it's the only planet discovered by an American, Clyde Tombaugh, who made the historic find in 1930 using imagery captured by Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Twenty years on, many Pluto lovers are still fighting the IAU's decision, claiming it was unscientific and inconsistently applied.
The IAU defined a planet according to three newly pronounced criteria: It has to orbit the sun, be massive enough to be spherical, and clear its orbit of debris. Pluto fell short on the third count, according to the IAU, as it shares space in the distant Kuiper Belt with many other dwarf planets. But Earth shares orbital space with lots of asteroids, as does Jupiter, Pluto-planet advocates note. So why was Pluto singled out?
We now know that such Pluto defenders include Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut and tech entrepreneur who became NASA chief this past December.
Isaacman testified about the White House's 2027 NASA budget request today (April 28) before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. At the very end of the hearing, Republican Sen. Jerry Moran asked the NASA administrator his thoughts on Pluto, noting that Tombaugh hailed from Moran's home state of Kansas.
"Senator, I am very much in the camp of 'make Pluto a planet again,'" Isaacman replied.
"And I would say, we are doing some papers right now on, I think, a position that we would love to escalate through the scientific community to revisit this discussion and ensure that Clyde Tombaugh gets the credit he received once and rightfully deserves to receive again," the NASA chief added.
As those words indicate, all NASA (or any Pluto advocates) can do on the matter is escalate the discussion. The ultimate decision on Pluto's status lies with the IAU, a global society of professional astronomers that defines celestial objects and assigns official names to them and their surface features.
A significant escalation occurred in July 2015, when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft returned the first-ever up-close imagery of Pluto. Those photos revealed a stunningly diverse world with towering mountains, vast nitrogen-ice glaciers and other jaw-dropping features, including a now-famous heart-shaped landform that mission scientists dubbed Tombaugh Regio.
New Horizons' historic flyby wasn't enough to get Pluto its planethood back. Will things be different now that NASA's chief is pulling so openly for the farflung world? We'll have to wait and see.
You've got your facts all wrong. Sagan tried to recruit Tyson to Cornell after seeing his application. He wasn't "spotted on campus." Tyson eventually chose Harvard over Cornell, so he never studied under Sagan
Oh my, many sleepless nights ahead until I hear the verdict.
Methane frezes.
The low temperature on Pluto is 33 Kelvin. Cold enough for glaciers of frozen Nitrogen to dominate its surface.
Let's call the whole thing off.
If Pluto’s a dog, what is Goofy??
Isn’t Pluto right near Uranus?
Neil could (maybe) teach at a community college.
Hey, he’s got a good sense of humor, he’s not a bad person but I do hate the way he’s held up as a genius. As the smartest man on the planet. He is not.
I think it is a planet.
Always have. It transits around the Sun and has volume.
What about a dozen or so Kuiper belt bodies very similar to Pluto?
Now, that’s some funny stuff right there I tell ya.
Pluto IS a planet!!
Phooey to the atheist jerks who demoted it to a “dwarf”!
Pluto does not give a fig.
I want my mnemonic back!
For the order of the main sequence stars, on the other hand, the mnemonic is useful (O be a fine good kiss me right now, sweetheart). (I think I remember that right from decades ago.)
I had the privilege of hearing Clyde Tombaugh give a lecture--he was elderly at the time but still full of enthusiasm for astronomy.
If we won’t speak up for the Plutonians, who will?
You say tomayto, and I say tomahto,
you say Chicayno, and I say Chicawno.
Can you believe they actually wrote a book about this? :
https://www.google.com/books/edition/How_I_Killed_Pluto_and_Why_It_Had_It_Com/uHq_8awQIbgC
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