YOU! DEGRASSE! It's time to make Pluto a proper planet again, says NASA boffin

Not so fast, says NASA and others

Stern's comments on Friday come as no surprise: he's been one of the most vocal voices of dissent ever since the 2006 IAU vote and said at the time that "the definition stinks."

Most of the planets in the Solar System, Stern correctly pointed out, don't have clear orbits – there are plenty of asteroids in the vicinity of Earth, Mars and Jupiter's orbits. He also noted that fewer than five per cent of the astronomical community actually voted to delist Pluto.

Stern is rather biased – after all, the vote came as New Horizons was speeding towards Pluto after its lift off earlier that year. But he does have a point too – we now know Pluto is a highly complex piece of geography and has none of the blandness of Ceres or Vesta.

And he's not alone.

Here in the US both New Mexico and Illinois have passed legislation that has explicitly defined Pluto as a planet. Pluto's discoverer Clyde Tombaugh was from Illinois, by the way, and some of his ashes are flying on the New Horizons probe as it speeds into the Kuiper Belt.

There's certainly a lot of public support for re-entering Pluto in the planetary roster, so much so that noted astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson has given lectures devoted entirely to telling Pluto supporters to "get over it."

Part of the support for Pluto as a planet is, no doubt, cultural conservatism. We all grew up considering Pluto a planet and it's nice to carry on thinking that way. But, as we've found at El Reg, that's not the only reason.

Take Reg scribe Kieren McCarthy, who has a daughter born after Pluto was declassified. She's become so entranced with the recent news from Pluto that she writes letters to scientists asking for it to be reinstated again, based on how fascinating the place is.

As we learn more about Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, this debate over Pluto's planetary status is only going to get more frenzied. Certainly Pluto is a very complex orbital body, but it may be that there are other similarly intricate bodies out in the Kuiper Belt.

New Horizons is now on its way to find out what some of these rock lumps look like. If they are just dull snowballs, then Pluto might be readmitted into the Solar System. That's how science works – you find stuff out and apply it rather than relying on faith and dogma. ®