--- title: Pluto is a Planet Says Vote description: A populist uprising restores a space favorite to the planetary ranks. Will the astronomers listen? canonical: https://time.com/3429938/pluto-planet-vote/ author: Michael Lemonick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-26T13:09:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:32.898Z article:section: Science og:title: Pluto is a Planet in a Landslide Vote og:description: A populist uprising restores a space favorite to the planetary ranks. Will the astronomers listen? og:url: https://time.com/3429938/pluto-planet-vote/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt366d17a1441d09d4/6986a58e1eebf77b7f372dfa/pluto.jpg?branch=production&width=919&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 919 og:image:height: 517 og:image:alt: Sure looks like a planet: An artist's rendering of Pluto og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pluto is a Planet in a Landslide Vote twitter:description: A populist uprising restores a space favorite to the planetary ranks. Will the astronomers listen? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt366d17a1441d09d4/6986a58e1eebf77b7f372dfa/pluto.jpg?branch=production&width=919&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The People Have Voted: Pluto is a Planet! > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Phone Home: NASA's Call Center [Watch (HLS stream): Phone Home: NASA's Call Center](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uGQRvwuW.m3u8) (3:48)  _Published 2014-01-08. NASA has been communicating with astronauts and spacecraft via the Deep Space Network for over 50 years._ by [Michael Lemonick](https://time.com/author/michael-d-lemonick/) ## Michael Lemonick Sep 26, 2014 1:09 PM UTC  Sure looks like a planet: An artist's rendering of Pluto Sure looks like a planet: An artist's rendering of Pluto NASA by [Michael Lemonick](https://time.com/author/michael-d-lemonick/) ## Michael Lemonick Sep 26, 2014 1:09 PM UTC When Pluto was [hurled from the pantheon of planets](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2019341%5F2017328%5F2017311,00.html) back in 2006, it could simply have slinked away, accepting its new title of “[dwarf planet](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2011254%5F2014850%5F2014554,00.html)” without a fuss. But thanks to the undying support of its [millions of fans](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CEMQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plutoisaplanet.com%2F&ei=9xkkVJ6rEdScygTDg4GABQ&usg=AFQjCNGO1KdorF76g2HjZebAytHLuSaKFQ&sig2=QTCXKAMpl-8eyvnAoo8EtA&bvm=bv.76247554,d.cWc)—not just schoolchildren, but many [astronomers as well](http://content.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1328487,00.html)—the little planet that could is still a contender. The latest evidence: [a debate](http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2014-25) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in which three astronomers squared off to present both sides of the question: “Is Pluto a Planet?” And when the dust settled, the audience, made up mostly of ordinary citizens, declared once again that the answer is “duh, obviously.” Three may seem like one side too many, but David Aguilar, the Center’s director of public affairs, who set up the debate, wanted to look at the question not just from a scientific perspective, but also through the lens of history. The first speaker, therefore, was the eminent Harvard astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich. “Planet,” he pointed out, “is a culturally defined word that has changed its meaning over the ages.” In fact, the word itself comes from an ancient Greek word meaning “wanderer.” Unlike the stars, which seem fixed in place, the planets are objects that wander from one constellation to another in the sky—and since the Sun and the Moon do that too, they were originally considered planets as well. ### PHOTOS: This Astronaut's Images of Earth Look Like Beautiful Abstract Paintings  "Harsh land. Windswept valleys in northern #Africa"—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 6, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA  "Land use in South Africa, you can see where water is."—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 9, 2014. Alexander Gerst—ESA  "Irrigation in the #Sahara #Desert looks like a challenging task from up here... #BlueDot"—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 28, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA  "An open history book of our planet: the #Sahara Desert"—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 26, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA  "An open history book of our planet: the # Sahara Desert"—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 26, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA/SIPA USA  "Close-up of gigantic Salar of Uyuni in Bolivia. You can even see the salt fields and the 'Cactus Island'."—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 15, 2014. Alexander Gerst—ESA  "The #Moon was still behind the horizon. A #FataMorgana of atmospherical refraction #BlueDot"—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 14, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA/SIPA USA  "When I took this photo, I was sure these are clouds. But now I'm not so sure... #BlueDot"—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 7, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA  "Probably a river in Kazakhstan or slightly west of it."—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 29, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA/SIPA USA  "An open history book of our planet: the #Sahara Desert"—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 26, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA  "Human-made fires in East Africa. Can you spot them?"—Alexander Gerst via Twitter on July 9, 2014 Alexander Gerst—ESA That designation didn’t last, of course, but when astronomers began finding asteroids in the early 1800’s, they were also counted as planets, at least as first, (The fact that astronomer William Herschel had recently [discovered the new planet Uranus](http://www.amazon.com/The-Georgian-Star-Revolutionized-Understanding/dp/039333709X) had evidently given the scientists’ a taste for more.) Within a few decades, though, astronomers found so many asteroids that things were getting confusing. Objects like Ceres and [Vesta](http://science.time.com/2012/09/24/the-great-wet-cosmic-rock/), the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt, were demoted from “planet” to “minor planet,” in a foreshadowing of Pluto’s fate a century and a half later—and it had nothing to do with any sort of scientific definition of the word. And neither did the International Astronomical Union’s decision to downgrade Pluto in 2006\. Just as with the asteroids, astronomers began finding additional Pluto-like objects starting in the 1990s, including Eris, which turns out to be [essentially the same size as Pluto](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2098150,00.html). If Pluto is a planet, so is Eris, and [so are several other objects at the edge of the Solar System](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118354,00.html). That would be just too confusing, argued the second debater, astronomer Gareth Williams, associate director of the IAU’s [Minor Planet Center](http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/mpc.html). If you let Pluto stay, he said, you logically have to let the number of planets rise to 24 or 25, “with the possibility of 50 or 100 within the next decade” as more objects are found. “Do we want schoolchildren to have to remember so many? No, we want to keep the numbers low.” This isn’t exactly a rigorous scientific argument—so to give its decision the flavor of science, the IAU came up with a definition of “planet” so convoluted it seemed entirely arbitrary. To qualify as a planet, a body must orbit the sun and be large enough to be at least roughly spherical—two rules that make sense. But it must also have gravitationally “cleared its neighborhood” of other bodies, meaning it has its orbital traffic lane all to itself, which Pluto doesn’t—at least during the most remote portion of its journey around the sun. The rule seemed carefully crafted so that “dwarf planets” like Pluto, Eres and the asteroid Ceres didn’t make the cut. “It didn’t make sense at all,” said Center for Astrophysics communications director David Aguilar, who set up the debate. “Isn’t a dwarf fruit tree also a fruit tree? Isn’t a dwarf rabbit a rabbit?” But in the end, the resolution was approved by IAU members, and in 2006 the number of planets was pared from 9 to 8—the ones known to science pre-Pluto. The last debater was astronomer Dimitar Sasselov, director of Harvard’s Planets and Life initiative. His argument, he explained in a conversation after the debate, was that the word “planet” does need a scientific definition, but that we don’t know enough yet to create one. The reason: we’ve discovered thousands of planets orbiting stars beyond the Sun, and until we can understand how they formed and what they’re really like, any definition is premature. Pluto may be a planet based on scientific reasoning, or it may not be. “For now,” he said, “we should keep Pluto as a planet by default.” In the end, the Harvard audience voted in favor of Pluto’s reinstatement by a landslide. Planetary scientist Alan Stern, whose new [New Horizons probe](http://time.com/3176517/nasa-spacecraft-reaches-neptune-on-its-way-to-pluto/) will reach Pluto next summer for a first-ever close encounter, wasn’t there. But when he heard about the vote, he said, “every time there’s a poll it turns out this way. The IAU have become largely irrelevant in this.” The organization may seem to count even less when you consider something Gingerich revealed during his arguments. He was there for the 2006 IAU vote, which came when most of the attendees had already gone home. Just 424 of the organization’s nearly 10,000 members were present, and when the organizers offered the gathering the chance to reconsider Pluto’s demotion, Gingerich said, “they voted not to vote again because they wanted to go to lunch, so that was the end of it.” ## Transcript >> On a rotating planet, a single antenna could never keep in constant contact with a space craft at any great distance. For that reason, the Deep Space Network has three sets of antennas located about 120 degrees apart around the globe; Madrid in Spain, Goldstone in California, and Canberra in Australia. At no point is the spacecraft vast in blackout. The Deep Space Network first went online in December of 1963 and has been in constant use ever since. At the moment, it's communicating with more than 30 Deep Space spacecraft. Spacecraft and human beings have been traveling to the moon for more than 50 years now and most of the images with the small exception of the ones hand carried by astronauts on traditional film were sent back through the Deep Space Network. >> Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. >> The original and iconic scenes of Neil Armstrong stepping on the surface of the Sea of Tranquility, that came through the DSN. >> That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. But I was [ unk ] -[ unk ] images of Apollo 17 taking off. >> Three, two, one, ignition. >> We're on our way, Houston. >> And the first colored broadcast from the surface of the moon. >> Okay, Houston, I'm gonna [ unk ] chamber now. >> Roger, out. >> Richard Nixon may be the only president ever to communicate by the Deep Space Network when he spoke to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon in July of 1969. >> Hello Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. >> Transmissions from the moon to earth take about a second and a half to get here, which is about as long as it takes light to travel to 239, 000 miles from here to there. For Mars, it's a different story. The distance between Mars and the Earth changes depending upon where they are in their orbits. And when the Curiosity Rover landed in 2012, the two planets were about 154 million miles apart, which means it took close to 14 minutes for a signal including an image to come from there to here. -[ unk ] confirmed. Proceed to Mars. >> Color images don't come in in full color. The color has to be added later as data's impact through different filters and at different frequencies is interrupted to add hues and shades to what's originally a black and white image. Over the course of time, the quality of the photographs has gotten strikingly sharper. The first images from Mars were grainy fly over shots. By the time Curiosity landed in 2012, the pictures that were coming home were in some cases almost indistinguishable from high- quality photography taken in the maizes and bad lands of the southwest. A network that was built in 1963 has been used by generations of spacecraft that couldn't even have been dreamed of back then. 50 years from now when the DSN is 100 years old, it may be the source of communications from human beings living and working on Mars. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3429938/pluto-planet-vote/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3429938/pluto-planet-vote/"},"headline":"The People Have Voted: Pluto is a Planet!","datePublished":"2014-09-26T13:09:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:40:32.898Z","description":"A populist uprising restores a space favorite to the planetary ranks. 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