NASA chief Jared Isaacman says he's fighting for Pluto: 'I am very much in the camp of 'make Pluto a planet again'

Space.com ^ | 04/28/2026 | Mike Wall

[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.

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TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: abouttime; davidlevy; isaacman; nasa; pluto; tombaugh; xplanets

[Ken H]

MPAPA!

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

The woke fraudster Neil deGrasse Tyson who led the effort to strip Pluto from its planetary status is NOT even a planetary scientist!!

[Ge0ffrey]

Me too!

[fwdude]

At the very least, Pluto should have been grandfathered in as a planet.

[enumerated]

And while we’re at it, let’s bring back miles, yards, feet, inches, ounces, pounds - stuff like that.

[Kleon]

I strongly believe that the only reason Pluto was downgraded is because the planet was discovered by an American. Restoring its rightful status should be a priority.

[MarlonRando]

Neil was a young man when he was walking in the campus where Dr Carl Sagan spotted him. A black young man at the physics department! So Dr Sagan took Neil under his wing. That’s how Neil became famous. Not because he’s ever thought or done anything magnificent/noteworthy , but because he was the only black kid around and he stood out like a sore thumb and he became a pet project

[JimRed]

...the icy world...

Cold, for sure, but icy? That requires water, doesn't it?

[SunkenCiv]

Yes!

[SunkenCiv]

"To Pluto And Far Beyond" By David H. Levy, Parade, January 15, 2006 -- We don't have a dictionary definition yet that includes all the contingencies. In the wake of the new discovery, however, the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to develop a workable definition of planet. For our part, in consultation with several experienced planetary astronomers, Parade offers this definition: A planet is a body large enough that, when it formed, it condensed under its own gravity to be shaped like a sphere. It orbits a star directly and is not a moon of another planet.

The Nine Planets search results

[SunkenCiv]

· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark ·
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Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

[The Louiswu]

A waste of time and money.

[Rinnwald]

ice /īs/
noun

1. Water frozen solid.
2. A surface, layer, or mass of frozen water.
3. Something resembling frozen water.
“ammonia ice.”

It’s like the third one.

[Nateman]

One thing that annoys me about Pluto unclassified as a planet is that it resulted in the theft of a major victory: human exploration of the furthest planet. When Voyager 2 did a fly by of Neptune it was considered the second to last planet of the Solar System. When New Horizons went by Pluto , Pluto was now only a dwarf planet. Where was our chance to celebrate reaching the ultimate milestone of the last planet?

[Sacajaweau]

I agree....

And can we please change the name of Uranus while we're at it.

[kawhill]

“Absolute zero is approximately -459.67°F. It is the theoretical lowest possible temperature, where all molecular motion ceases (0 Kelvin or -273.15°C).” I wonder how close the planet Pluto is to that.

[Nateman]

...That requires water, doesn't it?

No . In fact the ice on Pluto is composed of frozen Nitrogen. That is pretty cold!

[DesertRhino]

Just start calling it a planet and be done. I am fairly certain WE pay for the IAW, either directly or through grants.
Just remind them of that, tell them it’s a planet now and move forward.

[wally_bert]

Pluto was good enough for the Gamelons.

Star Blazers cartoon.