By Tim Binnall
An off-the-cuff remark from the administrator of NASA has reignited the debate over whether or not Pluto is a planet. While speaking to reporters at an event in Colorado last Friday, Jim Bridenstine, who heads the space agency, remarked: "just so you know, in my view, Pluto is a planet." The statement reportedly drew laughs from those in attendance and he continued "you can write that the NASA administrator declared Pluto a planet once again. I'm sticking by that. It's the way I learned it and I'm committed to it."
Ironically, Bridenstine's comments came on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the controversial 2006 vote by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) which stripped Pluto of its planetary status after decades of debate among astronomers. The decree, which classified the celestial body as a dwarf planet instead, was met with considerable consternation from the general public as well as scientists who disagreed with the decision. To this day, numerous astronomers have refused to change their stance that Pluto is a planet despite what the proverbial textbooks now say.
In fact, no less an authority than the head of the New Horizons mission, which famously performed a flyby study of Pluto in 2015, lambasted the dwarf planet classification as "unworkable and unteachable" as well as "scientifically flawed and internally contradictory." Despite the strong misgivings of the scientific community and now the NASA chief's recent show of support for the beleaguered celestial body, Pluto is stuck being a dwarf planet, since the matter is apparently under the auspices of the IAU and not something that can be changed via a decree from the space agency.