Pluto Bids To Get Back Planetary Status

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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Space.I'm Steve Mirsky.Got a minute?
Poor little Pluto.
In 2006, astronomers ganged up on it and voted to strip it of its planethood, but other astronomers signed a petition saying they'd ignore that vote.
Now Pluto itself seems to be fighting back.
Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we've learned that Pluto has at least five moons, pretty impressive for something that's supposedly not a planet.
And new research suggests Pluto is just we were taught long ago:
the largest world orbiting the sun beyond Neptune.
In 2005, astronomers discovered Pluto's greatest rival, Eris.
It's three times farther from the sun than Pluto.
And Eris was thought to be bigger than Pluto, too.
But that initial estimate may have been wrong.
Other astronomers have now analyzed methane in Pluto's air.
Yup, Pluto has an atmosphere again, pretty impressive for something that's supposedly not a planet,
and the methane suggests Pluto is about 1,471 miles across, versus just 1,445 miles across for Eris.
The new study appears in the journal Icarus.
We'll find out its exact diameter in July, 2015, when NASA's first spacecraft to Pluto zips by.
It'll take lots of pictures, probably find more moons, and hopefully tell us whether Pluto is indeed the king of the underworld, I mean, of the solar system beyond Neptune.
Thanks for the minute, for Scientific American's 60-Second Space. I'm Steve Mirsky.

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