Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate

Twenty years ago, Pluto got demoted. After a vote by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in August 2006, Pluto was relegated from major planet to dwarf planet status. Our solar system dropped from nine planets to eight. At the time, many scientists were unhappy with the decision. Two decades on, the debate is, if anything, even more polarised.

“The definition of a planet they created, you can’t use it at all,” says Philip Metzger, the director of the Stephen W Hawking Centre for Microgravity Research and Education at the University of Central Florida. “It makes the definition of a planet completely non-useful in science.”

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© Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

© Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

© Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The bus-sized telescope — named after the late Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer — will take more than three months to reach its destination.

Searching for exoplanets and clues on planet formation, the Roman telescope begins million-mile journey from Florida launchpad

A $4.3bn space telescope that Donald Trump tried to kill has lifted off from Florida as Nasa embarks on the next stage of its quest to unlock the secrets of the universe.

The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope survived two rounds of proposed White House budget cuts, and began a million-mile journey into deep space from a launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday morning. .

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© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

Searching for exoplanets and clues on planet formation, the Roman telescope begins million-mile journey from Florida launchpad

A $4.3bn space telescope that Donald Trump tried to kill has lifted off from Florida as Nasa embarks on the next stage of its quest to unlock the secrets of the universe.

The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope survived two rounds of proposed White House budget cuts, and began a million-mile journey into deep space from a launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday morning. .

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

NASA plans to soon launch a new space telescope that will survey a billion galaxies to trace how the universe evolved over time, all courtesy of America's spy program and decades of research into detector technology. Once in position, it will take data that astronomers hope will help answer some of the field's most puzzling questions.

President Donald Trump presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the three Americans and one Canadian whose April lunar flyby set a new distance record for humanity.

President Donald Trump is spending Friday in Houston, where he'll honor the Artemis II NASA crew for their 10-day mission around the moon earlier this year.