Neil deGrasse Tyson

    Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the most renowned astrophysicist within our world today. He was born in NewYork City on October 5, 1958. the physicist had a calling to physics within our stars. He went to study physics and receive a bachelors from Harvard University. He then moved on to Columbia University to receive his PhD in astrophysics. From there, he went to work for the Heydarian Planetarium at which he shortly became the company's director. While he was director, he made many changes to the planetarium which included a $210 million dollar projected that ended in 2000. At this time, he also made the controversial discovery of labeling Pluto as a dwarf planet and taking it out the the planetarium. After much deliberation, the planetarium officially agreed with Tyson's findings and classified Pluto as not a planet.

    Tyson has wrote multiple books and published many scholarly writings focusing on cosmology, stellar evolution, galactic astronomy, bulges, and stellar formation. Through all these subjects, Tyson truly focuses his time on the cosmos and how it affects our planet today and in the future. One of the main topics he focuses on is the planet Pluto. In 2006, the planet Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet. Earlier in 2015, more findings had come out about the planet and whether it should be reinstated as a planet due to its topography. Neil deGrasse Tyson was asked to weigh in on the findings. New research finds that Pluto has new water ice forming on its planet. On top of that, cryovolcanoes, volcanoes that shoot water, ice, nitrogen, and ammonia particle, have been discovered on its topography as well. To add on, a blue haze in the atmosphere that could be compared to Earth's atmosphere had also been found. But, even with these findings to show that it may now qualify as a planet, it still does not meet certain criteria as explained by Tyson that would qualify to put it back into our solar system. 

    There are three cardinal rules for a planet to be recognized as a planet. The planet must be large enough to have a force of gravity acting on it at all times, the planet must also be a primary object in orbit around the sun, and the third rule is the object must have cleared its orbit of interplanetary debris. This last rule is the deal breaker and the reason as to why Pluto cannot be identified as a planet. With many ice objects flying around in Pluto's space known as the Kuiper Belt, these objects far exceed Pluto's mass which in turn shows that Pluto does not own this space around it and in turn cannot be classified as a planet. 

References: 

https://phys.org/news/2015-11-neil-degrasse-tyson-horizons-pluto.html

https://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/

https://www.biography.com/scientist/neil-degrasse-tyson