{"id":767859,"date":"2026-05-02T09:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/767859\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T09:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:10:14","slug":"nasa-boss-wants-plutos-planethood-restored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/767859\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA boss wants Pluto\u2019s planethood restored"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">(<a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:NewsNation;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">NewsNation<\/a>) \u2014 NASA Administrator<a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/space\/nasa-faces-questioning-lawmakers-proposed-budget-cuts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Jared Isaacman;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> Jared Isaacman<\/a> is here for Pluto, the onetime planet that was demoted to \u201cdwarf planet\u201d status in 2006.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI am very much in the camp of \u2018Make Pluto a planet again,\u2019\u201d Isaacman <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/nasa-chief-reignites-debate-over-plutos-planetary-status-and-yes-were-doing-this-again-2000752585\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:said;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">said<\/a> earlier this week during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The NASA chief said his agency is conducting research that will hopefully convince the scientific community that Pluto is a full-blown planet and thus reaffirm astronomer Clyde Tombaugh\u2019s 1930 discovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/space\/nasa-moon-artemis-iii\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:NASA prepares for next mission to the moon: Artemis III;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"> NASA prepares for next mission to the moon: Artemis III <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/dwarf-planets\/pluto\/facts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Pluto;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Pluto<\/a>, with a relatively petite diameter of 1,500 miles, nearly conforms to the International Astronomical Union\u2019s definition of a planet by being round and by orbiting the Sun. Crucially, though, Pluto is unable to clear its orbit of debris, something known as \u201cclearing the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pluto resides in the Kuiper Belt with other dwarf planets. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cPluto lost its planet status when it failed to get big enough to be a planet back about 4 1\/2 billion years ago,\u201d CalTech Professor of Planetary Astronomy Michael E. Brown told the YouTube channel <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hRNwFRmB4w8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:EarthSky;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">EarthSky<\/a> in 2024. \u201cWe should never have called Pluto a planet to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Brown says he has received negative reaction for his stance but adds, \u201cI actually understand this emotional connection to what we think of as our neighborhood. \u2026 and if you suddenly take one of those things away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(NewsNation) \u2014 NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is here for Pluto, the onetime planet that was demoted to \u201cdwarf&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":767860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[24],"tags":[40531,26557,916,5697,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-767859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-dwarf-planet","tag-jared-isaacman","tag-nasa","tag-pluto","tag-science","tag-space","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116504207470398083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}