Trump's NASA chief, who has no scientific background, says Pluto is a planet (school, working)

[Chicano3000X]

https://www.businessinsider.com/plut...a-chief-2019-8


Since when is Jerry Smith working at NASA?

https://youtu.be/S4E2ZuPCBG0

[atltechdude]

Pluto can be a planet again but Eris would have to be the tenth planet also in that case.

[Dbones]

it's already being reclassified back as a planet. A dwarf planet. This is yet another example of scientists getting it wrong and they learn the truth later on.

[Roboteer]

Trump's NASA chief, who has no scientific background, says Pluto is a planet


(patiently) That's what it was called for decades by teachers, astronomers, and everyone else while he was in school and later.

It THAT what you're trying to bash him for now?

Really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't we....?

[Chicano3000X]

Originally Posted by Roboteer

Trump's NASA chief, who has no scientific background, says Pluto is a planet


(patiently) That's what it was called for decades by teachers, astronomers, and everyone else while he was in school and later.

It THAT what you're trying to bash him for now?

Really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't we....?

• ⁠A planet is any object in orbit around the Sun with a diameter greater than 2000*km.
• ⁠A planet is any object in orbit around the Sun whose shape is stable due to its own gravity.
• ⁠A planet is any object in orbit around the Sun that is dominant in its immediate neighborhood.

Pluto fails to meet that last criteria. Its orbit neither clears the Kuiper Belt, nor is its gravity well massive enough to pull the Kuiper Belt into its orbit.