Pluto – 20 years later

Twenty years ago something happened that made many people mad. Pluto was removed from the list of official planets and became a dwarf planet. Pluto, as you might know, used to be a planet. In fact, it was considered to be the ninth planet from its discovery in 1930 until it was reclassified by the International Astronomical Union at their August 2006 General Assembly in Prague. Not everyone was happy with this new designation and it continues to be controversial to this day. We won’t go into all this – for more information see the article “Reclassifying Pluto.“

There have been attempts along the way to reinstate Pluto. Even the current NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, has called for the reclassification of Pluto as a planet. But none have been successful. We’re not sure if anything will come of this, however, we’ll track it and see if anything develops, so stay tuned for more (maybe). For now, planet or not, know that Pluto is still out there in the far reaches of our Solar System.

Pluto
Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker

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