NASA wants Pluto reclassified as a planet — What changes now?

Pluto debate regarding its planethood has once again reignited. Now NASA is pushing to reclassify Pluto as a planet.

Pluto lost its planetary title back in 2006 and was demoted to “dwarf planet” based on International Astronomical Union (IAU) controversial voting. Since then, the decision has faced backlash from the scientific community.

At the heart of its de-classification lies the IAU’s definition of a planet. According to standard definition, to be called a planet, a celestial body must orbit the Sun, be nearly around and must have gravitational influence which helps the body to clear its orbital neighbourhood of debris.

When it comes to Pluto, it only meets two requirements but falls short on the third, becoming the reason for its demotion.

Here a question arises: What has changed now and why is NASA determined to bring back Pluto’s planethood?

Recently, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing showed his support to make Pluto a planet again, stating, “I am very much in the camp of Make Pluto a planet again. We would love to escalate through the scientific community to revisit this discussion.”

According to NASA chief, his agency is conducting research and will eventually come up with a compelling explanation, helping the scientific community to convince that Pluto is a full-blown planet, validating the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh’s concept who discovered it in 1930.

Still some scientists are not in the favour of reclassifying Plato as a planet. CalTech Professor of Planetary Astronomy Michael E. Brown, “Pluto lost its planet status when it failed to get big enough to be a planet back about 4 1/2 billion years ago. We should never have called Pluto a planet to begin with.”

While the President could theoretically issue an executive order "reinstating" Pluto, it would be a symbolic gesture rather than a scientific reality.

In the world of astronomy, legal decrees hold no weight; instead, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) serves as the global authority on celestial nomenclature and classification.