NASA Administrator Isaacman Backs Restoring Pluto's Planet Status

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 voiced strong support for reconsidering Pluto's classification. "Senator, I am very much in the camp of 'make Pluto a planet again,'" Isaacman said while responding to a question from Senator Jerry Moran, who chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations. He also indicated that Nasa researchers were working on studies that could help reopen the scientific debate on Pluto's status, USA Today reported. Isaacman said that he firmly believes the distant icy world should not have been reclassified as a dwarf planet. His remarks 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 confirmed as Nasa Administrator in December 2025, has previously expressed similar views, including in media interviews where he suggested that Pluto's classification deserves renewed examination.

Why Pluto was downgraded?

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh and was long considered the ninth planet of the solar system. However, in 2006, the IAU redefined what qualifies as a planet. While Pluto meets some criteria, such as orbiting the Sun and being spherical in shape, it does not meet the requirement of having 'cleared its orbit' of other debris. Because of this, Pluto was reclassified as a 'dwarf planet,' a designation that placed it in a separate category alongside other icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. Pluto is a small, frozen world about 1,400 miles wide, located at the edge of the solar system. It is part of the Kuiper Belt, a region filled with icy objects and remnants from the early solar system. Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft remains the only mission to have flown past Pluto, completing a historic flyby in 2015 and providing the first close-up images of its surface and moons.

Ongoing debate over planetary definition

The question of Pluto's status has remained a point of scientific and public debate since its reclassification. Some planetary scientists, including New Horizons mission lead 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 search efforts following predictions by astronomer Percival Lowell, who theorised the existence of a distant 'Planet X' based on irregularities in Uranus's orbit. Clyde Tombaugh finally discovered Pluto in 1930 at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. The name 'Pluto' was suggested by 11-year-old Venetia Burney from England, inspired by the Roman god of the underworld and was later adopted by astronomers. Despite renewed calls from Nasa's leadership and supporters, Pluto's classification remains unchanged under current International Astronomical Union rules. Any official reclassification would require a revision of the scientific definition of a planet, a move that continues to face debate within the global astronomy community.