Jared Isaacman (Photo/AP)
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has reiterated his support for restoring Pluto’s status as a planet.Speaking during a US Senate hearing on Tuesday, Isaacman expressed strong support for reconsidering Pluto’s classification.“Senator, I strongly support the make Pluto a planet again camp,” Isaacman said while responding to a question from Senator Jerry Moran, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.He also noted that NASA researchers are working on studies that could help reopen the scientific debate about Pluto’s status, USA Today reported. Isaacman said he firmly believes that the distant icy world should not be reclassified as a dwarf planet.His comments come nearly two decades after Pluto was stripped of its planetary status in a 2006 decision by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).Isaacman, who was appointed NASA administrator in December 2025, had previously expressed similar views, including in media interviews where he suggested that Pluto’s classification deserved renewed examination.
Why was Pluto demoted?
Pluto was discovered in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, and was long considered the ninth planet in the solar system.
However, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union redefined what is considered a planet. While Pluto meets some criteria, such as orbiting around the sun and being spherical in shape, it does not meet the requirement to have its orbit “cleared” of other debris.For this reason, Pluto has been reclassified as a “dwarf planet,” a designation that puts it in a separate category alongside other icy objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune.Pluto is a small, frozen world about 1,400 miles across, located at the edge of the solar system.
It is part of the Kuiper Belt, a region filled with icy bodies and remnants of the early solar system.NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft remains the only mission to fly by Pluto, completing a historic flyby in 2015 and providing the first close-up images of its surface and moons.
The ongoing debate over the definition of planets
The question of Pluto’s status has been a point of scientific and public debate since its reclassification.Some planetary scientists, including New Horizons mission commander Alan Stern, argue that Pluto should still be considered a planet based on its geology and atmosphere, not just orbital criteria.Public figures have also joined the discussion, with supporters calling for a broader definition of what constitutes a planet.Pluto was identified after years of research efforts following predictions by astronomer Percival Lowell, who theorized the existence of a distant “PlanetClyde Tombaugh finally discovered Pluto in 1930 at Lowell Observatory in Arizona.The name “Pluto” was suggested by 11-year-old Venice Burney from England, inspired by the Roman god of the underworld, and later adopted by astronomers.Despite renewed calls from NASA leadership and supporters, Pluto’s classification has not changed under current IAU rules.Any formal reclassification would require revising the scientific definition of the planet, a move that still faces debate within the global astronomy community.