Is Pluto A Planet?
Jerry Stone
- Organisation:
- Spaceflight UK
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Short (maybe less than one month's notice)
- Type:
- Professional
- Fee:
- Paid: The fee depends on the type of organisation, and possibly the size of the audience.
- Category:
- Science
- Updated:
- 15th November 2025
Pluto was in the news in 2015 as the New Horizons spacecraft - which has my name on it - finally reached Earth’s distant cousin in the outer reaches of the Solar System, after a journey of 9½ years. But did it actually encounter a planet?
Just 7 months after New Horizons was launched back in January 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted to re-classify Pluto as a Dwarf Planet, resulting in uproar in the astronomical community and starting a controversy that even today still divides opinion among astronomers and the general public alike. But does it need to? Is there not a simple answer?
“Is Pluto A Planet?” covers the thorny question of the status of Pluto. It does this by looking in detail at the IAU definition of a planet and some of its unexpected - and unintended - consequences. To give an example, I can show that Jupiter - the biggest object in the Solar System after the Sun - is actually a dwarf planet! I can also show that it isn’t a planet at all …
So how many planets do we really have? Is it 8, 17 or maybe only 3?
This is my most controversial presentation, and includes some things that one professional astronomer has told me I shouldn’t be saying!
Like all my presentations, it is highly visual, and entertaining as well as informative.
Views: 22 | Enquiries: 0About Jerry Stone
What can I tell you about me?
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I am a Freelance Space Presenter - a space expert, presenter and broadcaster! I have given presentations on space for over 55 years(!) all over the UK and abroad and I am often interviewed on radio and TV. I was on Sky News covering Tim Peake’s mission on the International Space Station.
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I have spoken about space exploration at the British Science Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Palace of Westminster, the Royal Institution, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the World Science Fiction Convention ... and a rock festival!
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I am a space author! My book, "One Small Step" commemorating the Moon landings, is on sale around the world, including at the National Space Centre, Jodrell Bank and Kennedy Space Centre. My latest book is “Find Out - Space Travel”, published by DK.
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I am a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society and the Royal Astronomical Society, the Chairman of the Space Habitats Committee of the Space Renaissance International, a Senior Associate of the Space Studies Institute and a Space Ambassador with the National Space Society. I am also the Meetings Organiser for the Federation of Astronomical Societies, which supports around 200 local groups across the UK.
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I am an interplanetary poet! NASA's Mars probe, MAVEN, is in orbit around the Red Planet. Like various other spacecraft, it has my name on it, stored on a DVD. Not only that, but the DVD also includes a poem I wrote! No other space presenter in the UK can make this claim.
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I also have a space-related Blue Peter badge! A few years ago at the UK Space Conference I showed Zoe Salmon and the Blue Peter team how rockets work.
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