14 DAY TRIAL // Just a couple of days back, on July 14, NASA's New Horizons probe reached the farther end of our Solar System and flew by Pluto and its five moons.
Images and data that the spacecraft obtained during its flyby of Pluto are just now beginning to pour in, and scientists at NASA say that New Horizons will go on delivering new views of the orb and its satellites for months to come.
As it turns out, American comedian Stephen Colbert is especially excited about New Horizons' flyby of Pluto. So much so that he had astrophysicist Neil deGrasse visit his Late Show office to discuss this historic NASA mission.
What came of it? Well, only the greatest interview / interrogatory / debate ever. Check it out in full in the video below and brace yourself for a whole lot of entertainment sprinkled with just the right dose of proper science-talk.
Colbert doesn't miss his chance to grill deGrasse Tyson
When discovered back in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto was labeled a planet.
Fast forward a few decades, and in 2006, just months after the New Horizons probe launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the orb was demoted and reclassified as a dwarf planet.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was among the traitors who argued that Pluto was not worthy of being called a planet. Apparently, Stephen Colbert still holds a grudge against him for not sticking up for Pluto when the poor orb needed him the most.
“It looks like a planet. It’s got atmosphere; it even has a heart - unlike you, who will give it no love,” he tells the scientist hoping to at least make him repent for his betraying Pluto.
The plan backfires as Neil deGrasse Tyson confesses he would much rather start calling Earth a dwarf planet than let Pluto get back to hanging out with all the other proper planets in the Solar System.
Why was Pluto reclassified as a dwarf planet anyway?
In 1930, when it was first spotted by Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto was estimated to be about as big as Earth. Over the years, it kept shrinking before our very eyes. Thanks to New Horizons, we now know that its diameter is one of just 1,473 miles (2,370 kilometers).
Still, it wasn't just because of its size that Pluto was downgraded to dwarf planet status. As explained by astronomers, dwarf planets are celestial bodies that, although they might look and act like planets, have not yet cleared their orbit. Pluto falls into this category.
Being part of the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the Solar System, good old Pluto shares its cosmic highway with plenty of celestial bodies, among them asteroids and even other dwarf planets. For this very simple reason, it cannot be viewed as a proper planet.
