This is Ira Flato, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Remember when members of the International Astronomical Union voted to strip Pluto of its planet

designation 20 years ago and how it immediately sparked the heated public debate?

Well, that decision was hardly the final word on Pluto's status.

Many planetary scientists immediately disagreed with kicking Pluto out of the planet club.

And now Pluto is back in the headlines again.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said that he wants to make Pluto great again

by declaring it a planet again, and he's urging President Trump to decree Pluto a planet by executive order.

So why does this plutonian debate seem never-ending? And does the president have the power to reinstate Pluto as a planet?

Two planetary scientists and Pluto enthusiasts are here to explain.

Dr. Amanda Bosch, executive director of the Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was first discovered.

Dr. Bosch is in Flagstaff, Arizona.

And Dr. Alan Stern, vice president at the Southwest

Research Institute and principal investigator of the New Horizons Mission to Pluto. Both of you,

welcome back to Science Friday. Thanks, Ira. Thanks, Ira. Looking forward to speaking with you.

Let me ask both of you first. What do you make of Jared

Isaacman's campaign to make Pluto a planet again? Let me begin with you, Alan. Sure. Well,

I'll say that we appreciate the administrators' thoughts on this. And you know, a previous NASA

administrator, Jim Bridenstein, did virtually the same thing six or so years ago.

So that makes two NASA administrators that agree with the majority of planetary scientists.

But, you know, ultimately scientists make up their minds one at a time based on facts, not based upon, you know, politics or even public sentiment.

Fortunately, the sciences have pretty much made up their mind and walked away from that IAU

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