NASA Pick Jared Isaacman Backs Pluto Reinstatement 20 Years After 2006 Demotion
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 31
NASA Pick Jared Isaacman Backs Pluto Reinstatement 20 Years After 2006 Demotion
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 31
Summary
Jared Isaacman told a congressional committee in April he is "very much in the camp of Make Pluto a Planet Again," putting Trump’s NASA administrator behind a renewed push to reverse Pluto’s 2006 downgrade.
The campaign targets the International Astronomical Union’s 3-part planet definition, especially its requirement that a body must have "cleared its neighbourhood"—a standard critics say is scientifically inconsistent.
Pluto advocates argue New Horizons’ 2015 flyby strengthened their case by showing mountains, recent geological activity and water-ice features, while opponents say restoring Pluto would also force reconsideration of bodies such as Earth’s moon.
The dispute began after Eris was discovered in 2005, prompting the IAU to vote in August 2006 to cut the solar system from 9 planets to 8; two decades later, the backlash remains strongest in the US, where Pluto was discovered in 1930.