MAPA! Trump’s NASA Administrator wants to bring back Pluto as a planet in our solar system

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacmanwants to put an end to a decades-long debate among scientists. IsPlutoaplanetor not?

Isaacman says it should be — but it hasn’t been one for 20 years. That’s because of a decision fromthe International Astronomical Union, which said it met the definition of a dwarf planet due to the other objects that orbit chilly Pluto. But, critics point out that Earth and Jupiter share orbital space withasteroidsand research since 2006 has revealed more about Pluto.

“I am very much in the camp of [making] Pluto a planet again,” the billionaire SpaceX astronaut told Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran Tuesday in ahearingon Capitol Hill, adding that some papers were underway to “revisit this discussion.”

He had previouslyrespondedto aposton the social media platform X asking for him to make Pluto a planet again. “We are looking into this,” Isaacman wrote. The position also has continued support fromformer Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

However, experts on Pluto remain very much divided on the issue.

“While NASA administrators are free to wax nostalgic for the days when Pluto was a planet, the actual scientists working in the field will continue to try to explain and classify objects in the solar system in the way that actually helps us understand the world in which we live,” Mike Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, toldThe Independentin an email.

Brown, who announced in 2016 that he had found evidence fora ninth planetat 5,000 times the mass of Pluto,had a handin the International Astronomical Union’s decision andwrote a book about killing Pluto’s status as a planet in 2011.

The union acknowledges that its decision continues to fuel intense emotions — but that its definition of what makes a planet remains accurate, a spokesperson also toldThe Independent.

“We understand that many people feel Pluto was ‘demoted; but in fact, Pluto became the leading object of a new family of solar system bodies,” Ramasamy Venugopal, press and media coordinator for the International Astronomical Union, wrote in an emailed statement. “...Scientific classifications are determined through international consensus and evidence-based processes. While they are not subject to unilateral change, they can be amended if the supporting evidence changes.”

Adam Frank, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester, said that the science behind demoting Pluto was “really important and really exciting.” Frank wrote a pieceinForbeson Tuesday telling people to quit “whining” about Pluto’s fate.

“Pluto is part of the rest of the solar system, the outer parts that are construction debris left over from building the planets. We didn’t know this just 30 years ago,” he toldThe Independent.

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Still, others are not as settled on the terminology.

“Of course Pluto's a planet, butit isa dwarf planet, a subspecies of planet. The argument seems to swirl about those who wish to say whether dwarf planets are or are not planets. This is a waste of time,” Bill McKinnon, Director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, toldThe Independent. “Pluto is part of the rest of the solar system, the outer parts that are construction debris left over from building the planets. We didn’t know this just 30 years ago.”

“Pluto is round, has an atmosphere, active geology and five (!) moons. What more does a planet need?” he asked, noting that he wasn’t trying to pretend it’s as big or in the same category as Mars or Earth.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh and named – after the Greek god of the underworld – by an 11-year-old English girl named Venetia Burney, according toNASA. It was declared the ninth planet in our solar system.

Although it is only about 1,400 miles wide – half the width of the U.S. – recent findings show that itmay harbor a deep ocean,contain an “active” heartandhave icy mountainsrising as high as 11,000 feet.

But, the thing is that there are many other dwarf planets out there. The union has only recognized five so far, butmore than 100may wait to be discovered, the space agency notes. And Ceres, which was also previously classified as a planet, is closer to Earth and is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

“It’s easier to have a solar system with eight planets than with, say, 12 or more if all the Pluto-sized bodies get in the mix. If Pluto is a planet again, things get complicated for all those other dwarf planets,” Adeene Denton, a geologist and planetary scientist who worked onresearchabout Pluto’s heart, toldThe Independent. “I personally subscribe to what’s sometimes called the geologic/geophysical definition of a planet – if it’s big enough to have its own active geology, it’s a planet!”

Denton’s colleague Erik Ian Asphaug, a planetary science professor at the University of Arizona, said that the formal definition of a planet “has a lot of problems.”

“If one day we discover an Earth-mass planet full of inhabitants, orbiting a super-Jupiter, it would not be a planet according to the IAU — how silly is that!” he said.

To once again be officially labeled one of the planets of our solar system, it would need the backing of the union. As of today, that looks largely unlikely.

But for many, Pluto has remained a planet — if only in heart and mind.

“When Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory in 1930, it was classified as a planet. In the hearts and minds of many scientists and the public, it has remained a beloved planet, despite its reclassification to a dwarf planet in 2006,” Amanda Bosh, the the Executive Director of Arizona’s Lowell Observatory toldThe Independent.

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May 01, 2026

MAPA! Trump’s NASA Administrator wants to bring back Pluto as a planet in our solar system

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacmanwants to put an end to a decades-long debate among scientists. IsPlutoaplanetor not? Isaacman say...

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David Allan Coe, who wrote 'Take This Job and Shove It' and other country hits, dies at 86

David Allan Coe, the country singer-songwriter who wrote the working class anthem “Take This Job and Shove It″ and had hits with “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” and “The Ride” among others, has died. He was 86.

Obit David Allan Coe

Coe's wife confirmed his death to Rolling Stone on Wednesday.

Whether he was labeled outlaw or underground, Coe was clearly an outsider in Nashville's music establishment, even throughout his successes as an in-demand songwriter and singer, eventually developing a core following around his raw, often obscene lyrics and a checkered and somewhat mysterious past.

His wife, Kimberly, posted on Facebook on in September 2021 that he had been hospitalized with COVID-19 and he made few appearances since then.

He did concert tours with Willie Nelson, Kid Rock, Neil Young and others. He wrote “Take This Job and Shove It,” a hit by Johnny Paycheck in 1977, and “Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone),” a hit by Tanya Tucker in 1974. He was also the first country singer to record “Tennessee Whiskey,” penned by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, that has since become a genre standard and hits for George Jones and Chris Stapleton.

His own country hit recordings included “You Never Even Call Me by My Name,” written by Steve Goodman and an uncredited John Prine; “The Ride,” and “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile.” Coe also appeared in a handful of movies, including “Stagecoach” and “Take this Job and Shove It,” which was named after his song.

Coe, born in Akron, Ohio, spent time in reformatories as a youngster, and served time in an Ohio prison from 1963 to 1967 for possession of burglary tools. He also has said he spent time with the Outlaws motorcycle club, but some of the tales about his prison time and his personal life have been wildly exaggerated over the years.

“I’d have never made it through prison without my music,” he said in an AP interview in 1983. “No one could take it (music) away from me. They could put me in the hole with nothing to do but I could still make up a song in my head.”

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He recorded his first album, a blues album called “Penitentiary Blues,” using songs that he wrote in prison. He later told reporters that he tried not to lean too heavily on prison as a topic for songs because of the similarities to the backstory of Merle Haggard, but that his criminal history was all people seemed interested in focusing on.

Coe recorded next for Columbia Records and did the album “The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy,” which became his nickname after performing in a rhinestone suit and wearing a mask.

During the heyday of the outlaw movement, Coe placed himself at the center of the scene, with songs like “Longhaired Redneck,” which featured lyrics about performing in dive bars, “Where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they’ll get out of here alive.”

He was featured in the acclaimed documentary about the outlaw country movement called “Heartworn Highways,” in which he performs a concert at a Tennessee prison.

Coe, himself heavily tattooed and sporting long hair, claimed a diverse fan base that included bikers, doctors, lawyers and bankers. His last record, released in 2006, was a collaboration with Dimebag Darrell and other former members of the heavy metal group Pantera.

He released two R-rated albums, 1978′s “Nothing Sacred” and 1982′s “Underground Album,” that he sold via biker magazines. The songs on these albums have been criticized for being racist, homophobic and sexually explicit. He told “Billboard” magazine in 2001 that author and songwriter Shel Silverstein convinced him to record the songs he had written, something he had come to regret.

“Those were meant to be sung around the campfire for bikers, and I still don’t sing those songs in concert,” he said.

In 2016, Coe was ordered to pay the IRS more than $980,000 in restitution for obstructing the tax agency and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Court documents say Coe earned income from at least 100 concerts yearly from 2008 through 2013 and either didn’t file individual income tax returns or pay taxes when he did file.

byAdministrator

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May 01, 2026

David Allan Coe, who wrote 'Take This Job and Shove It' and other country hits, dies at 86

David Allan Coe, the country singer-songwriter who wrote the working class anthem “Take This Job and Shove It″ and had hits with “You N...

Read More