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NASA chief wants to make “Pluto great again” · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good day, and welcome to the Friday May the 1st, 2026 edition of Innocent Forum's Daily Article Podcast.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, here, adding today's Daily article, written by our Senior Editor for Theology, and author of The Focus, Dr. Ryan Dineson.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a chief, Jared Isaacman was on Capitol Hill recently for a meeting with the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: After more than an hour of testimony, Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas asked Isaacman about his thoughts on Pluto.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Isaacman replied, Senator, I am very much in the camp of make Pluto a planet again.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that statement was interesting, NASA's chief administrator went along to add that his agency is currently working on several papers that will attempt to get the scientific community to re-examine the former planets candidacy.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And earlier this year, he told the Daily Mail,
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I 100% support President Trump making Pluto great again, in quote, ultimately, the decision will rest with the International Astronomical Union, the organization that demoted Pluto to a dwarf planet in the first place.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, a bit of added pressure from the leader of the world's largest space agency can't hurt.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: As someone who grew up with Pluto as the final planet in our solar system, and someone who may or may not take far too much pleasure in a largely pointless debate, I'd love to see it restore to full planetary status.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't until I looked into Isaacman's comments a bit further, though, that I realized how deep this particular rabbit hole goes.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you'll indulge me for a few minutes, I believe it's worthwhile to take a look at the debate, what led to the decision to make the change, and why restoring Pluto's status continues to be a pet project for so many.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Part of why Pluto feels so personal to many in this country is that it is the only planet discovered by an American.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: When Clyde Tombaugh's fascination with astronomy eventually earned him a place at the Lowell Observatory in Flagsa, Arizona, the odds of him actually finding the planet scientists believed existed at the edges of our solar system were pretty low.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Astronomer, Perseval Lowell, spent much of his career looking for the quote-unquote planet X, based on what he saw as irregular motions of Uranus and Neptune.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: He believed there must be another planet they hadn't found yet that was exerting enough force on them to change how they acted in their orbits.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: While Lowell died before ever finding his mystery planet, Tom Ball used Lowell's research who eventually stumbled across it.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: The irony is that Lowell was wrong.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Back in the 1900s, scientists understanding of planetary masses was not very accurate, and modern calculations can explain their planetary orbits without the need for an external force.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: As such, finding Pluto where Lowell thought it would be was, quote, a good bit of dumb luck,
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: or anything else.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still, the discovery came near the height of the Great Depression, and people were desperate for good news, or at least something to distract them from the bad news that filled every other page of the newspaper.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a result, people embrace Pluto in a way that is difficult for us to fully understand.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And while that further eventually faded, it still felt like our planet for enough people that interest was often passed down from generation to generation.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: That all changed in 2006 when the International Astronomical Union decided to create a hard and fast definition for what qualified as a planet, and Pluto didn't make the cut.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: They chose three criteria to define a planet.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: to, it has to orbit the sun, rather than another planetary body, and three, it has to have cleared all debris, think asteroids and dust, from the region around its orbit.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pluto checked the first two boxes, but not the third, and was thus demoted to a dwarf planet, alongside several other planetary bodies in the vicinity.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not everybody agreed with their
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: A study from the University of Central Florida in Orlando found that only one publication in the last 200 years used the clearing its own orbit idea as a measure of what qualifies as a planet and their reasoning has since been disproven.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Alan Stern, who helped lead the new horizons mission that flew by Pluto in 2015, simply uses a different definition altogether, one that relies more on the geophysical characteristics of a planet than what goes on around it.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: When new horizons reach Pluto, it sent back pictures of large mountains, eighth-in atmosphere, and possibly even an internal ocean.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: In short, it looks like what most people would consider a planet, especially in comparison to several of the larger planets like Jupiter and Saturn.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's worth noting that the International Astronomical Union didn't have access to new horizons findings when they made their initial
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: That the information hasn't caused them to revisit its status in the year since is frustrating to many, though.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: As the debate rages on, with figures like Isaacman, former NASA chief, Jim Brightonstein, and luminaries like William Shattner, who pleaded with President Trump to, quote, sign one of those executive things to make Pluto a planet again, all of them in favor of seeing
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of whether that happens though, then if Pluto's physical characteristics are going to change, it's not going to get any warmer or larger, it's not going to change its shape, and it's not going to orbit the sun any faster, which is 248 Earth years to be exact.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: So why do people care?
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: The answer is relevant to far more than our discussion on Pluto's planetary designation.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether it's the insects on the ground or the planets in the sky, what we call something has a direct influence on how we see it and, by extension, how much value it has in our eyes.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a coincidence that one of the first tasks that God gave humanity was to name the various parts of his creation as recorded in Genesis 2 verses 19 and 20.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: it gave Adam a sense of responsibility and helped to reinforce his role as the steward of what the Lord had made.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the only creature in all of creation that Adam didn't name was himself.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: God reserved that right and exercised it when he said in Genesis 1 verse 26, let us make man Adam and Hebrew in our image after our likeness.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: From the very beginning, God wanted us to know that we are special, called, and set apart from the rest of his creation, for a purpose that no other creature can fulfill.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet far too often, we try to take that authority back from God.
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like those who built the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 verse 4, we'd rather try to make a name for ourselves than embrace the name God has given us.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And from then until now, every time we choose that path, it will lead to disaster, especially if you're a disciple of Jesus.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: You see, for those of us who have been adopted into the family of God through salvation and Christ, we've been given the chance to be known by His name.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Christian literally means, follower of Christ or little Christ, and how we choose to live out that identity will reflect directly back on our Lord.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you've inherited his name, embrace the privilege and responsibility that comes with representing him to the world around you.
• 8:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: While none of us will ever do that perfectly, our job is to live in such a way that when people see us, they don't have to turn much further to see Jesus.
• 8:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: How far will those you meet today have to turn?