Washington: The debate surrounding Pluto’s demotion as a planet was stirred up once again when NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine reiterated his belief that the celestial body is indeed a planet.
Speaking at the FIRST Robotics event in Oklahoma, Bridenstine said that he disagrees with the exclusion of Pluto from the solar system’s group of planets.
“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,” he added in a video posted to Twitter by meteorologist Cory Reppenhagen.
The decision to downgrade Pluto as a planet came from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006 and it was classified as a dwarf planet.
The IAU also laid down three essential guidelines for a celestial body to be classified as a planet. Unfortunately, Pluto did not meet these guidelines as it belongs to the Kuiper Belt along with another dwarf planet called “Eris” which was discovered in 2005.
Since its discovery by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, Pluto was considered to be the ninth planet in the Solar System.
