Overview
- NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, during Tuesday’s Senate hearing, said he is “very much in the camp of make Pluto a planet again.”
- He said NASA is preparing research papers to advance a formal case through the scientific community to revisit Pluto’s classification.
- Any official change would come from the International Astronomical Union, which is the body that defines and names planets.
- Scientists are divided, with some backing the 2006 decision and others arguing for a geophysical standard that would include Pluto.
- Pluto was reclassified in 2006 for not clearing its orbital neighborhood, even as the 2015 New Horizons flyby showed mountains, glaciers, and other signs of an active world.