Jared Isaacman urges Senate to reinstate Pluto's planet status
Jared Isaacman is pushing for Pluto to get its planet status back.
At a recent Senate hearing, he said, "Senator, I am very much in the camp of 'make Pluto a planet again,'" and that papers are being prepared to revisit the discussion.
Pluto advocates point out that the rule used to downgrade Pluto in 2006 (that a planet must clear its orbit) doesn't really hold up, since even Earth and Jupiter share their orbits with asteroids.
Isaacman hopes this fresh look will honor Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who first spotted Pluto in 1930.
International Astronomical Union definition excludes Pluto
The official definition from the International Astronomical Union says a planet has to orbit the Sun, be round, and clear its neighborhood of other stuff: something Pluto doesn't do because it hangs out with lots of objects in the Kuiper Belt.
Some Pluto advocates think this rule is too strict.
Even after NASA's New Horizons mission sent back amazing photos of Pluto in 2015, its "dwarf planet" label stuck.
With Isaacman speaking up, there could finally be some new debate about bringing Pluto back into the planetary club.