Dual Citizenship Seen for Pluto


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	Dual Citizenship Seen for Pluto: Join the Debate! By Leonard David Senior Space Writer posted: 01:30 pm ET 30 January 2001

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Not describing Pluto as a planet is being viewed like the solar system snub of the century. The ninth wonder of the worlds, distant Pluto, has lost favor as a planet worth counting on.

That’s the belief of Neil de Grasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.

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Tyson supports the planetarium’s exhibit that ranks Pluto as belonging to the Kuiper Belt of icy objects past Pluto and has given a thumbs-down vote on exalting the way-out world as the solar system’s ninth planet.

The 411 on Pluto

Pluto: the dark world.

Visit SPACE.com"s reference section for interesting facts about the planets in other objects in our solar system and other fascinating subjects.

Overview of Pluto

Images and Maps of Pluto and its Moon Charon

Climate and structure

Moons and Ring

Historical Notes

Exploration

But space scientists here at the NASA Ames Research Center are defending the planetary status of Pluto, with some caveats, however.

Planet-like attributes

"It’s mostly a specious discussion," said Dale Cruikshank, a NASA research scientist in the astrophysics branch and specializing in small bodies and the Kuiper Belt.

Cruikshank is also president of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) commission for the physical study of the planets and satellites in the solar system. The commission’s official position is that Pluto is one of the nine planets in the solar system, a status that the faraway object has held since it was discovered in 1930, he said.

The late astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, first spotted Pluto, the only planet ever to be discovered by an American, and the only planet found that added to the growth of our solar system in the 20th century.

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"Pluto has many attributes which suggest it should be called a planet. It has its own moon, for example. It has an atmosphere. It has a surface that interacts and changes with the atmosphere. Like Neptune’s moon, Triton, Pluto probably has a haze in the atmosphere. For all we know it has clouds," Cruikshank said.

Object of affection

"My personal view is that Pluto should probably have dual citizenship, in that its planetary status ought to be maintained partly for historical reasons and partly for its physical characteristics," Cruikshank told SPACE.com. "But it seems clear that it is also ‘object one’ in what we now recognize as a large class of Kuiper Belt objects.

If Pluto does get that designation, either for common use or eventually by some official body such as the IAU, then it should also retain its status as a planet, Cruikshank said.

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