{"id":52118,"date":"2026-05-07T16:42:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/bbc-inside-science-should-pluto-become-a-planet-again\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T16:42:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:42:34","slug":"bbc-inside-science-should-pluto-become-a-planet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/bbc-inside-science-should-pluto-become-a-planet-again\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Inside Science &#8211; Should Pluto become a planet again?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">Available for 35 days<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-whitespace-pre-line sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">&#8220;Make Pluto a planet again&#8221; was the call this week from Donald Trump\u2019s NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman. <\/p>\n<p>The icy body was first seen in 1930 and was the only planet whose discovery was claimed by the United States. In 2006, though, it was officially stripped of its planet status. <\/p>\n<p>Tom Whipple is joined by astronomer Chris Lintott to discuss the debate that has raged ever since over whether Pluto should or shouldn\u2019t be reinstated as the solar system\u2019s 9th planet.<\/p>\n<p>We also hear about the big money scientific prize hoping to lead to breakthroughs in how humans can communicate with animals. Head judge Professor Yossi Yovel, from Tel Aviv University, and finalists Dr Catherine Crockford, from the CNRS Institute for Cognitive Sciences in Lyon, and Professor Nicolas Mathevon, from the University of Saint-Etienne, tell us what the Coller Dolittle Challenge is hoping to uncover.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, Penny Sarchet from New Scientist brings us the science news that might have slipped under the radar this week, including why there\u2019s a scientific gap in the dating lives of over 50s.<\/p>\n<p>Presenter: Tom Whipple<br \/>\nProducer: Alex Mansfield<br \/>\nEditor: Ilan Goodman<br \/>\nProduction Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/w3ct977k\" aria-label=\"Programme Website of Should Pluto become a planet again?\" data-testid=\"programme-website-link\" class=\"sw-group sw-inline-flex sw-items-center sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-text-brevier\">Programme Website<\/span><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16px\" height=\"16px\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-transition sw-ease sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-ml-2 sw-ml-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M21.9,16.9v11.5H3.7V10.2h11.1V7.6H1V31h23.6V16.9H21.9z M18,1v2.6h10.2l-0.5-1.1L11,19l1.9,1.9L29.6,4.3l-1.2-0.5V14H31V1 H18z\"\/><\/svg><\/a><button class=\"sw-group sw-text-pica sw-block sw-w-fit sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-mr-0.5\">Show less<\/span><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"0.75rem\" height=\"0.75rem\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-ml-1 sw-mt-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M0 18L16 0l16 18z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/w3ct977k?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Available for 35 days &#8220;Make Pluto a planet again&#8221; was the call this week from Donald Trump\u2019s NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman. The icy body was first seen in 1930 and was the only planet whose discovery was claimed by the United States. In 2006, though, it was officially stripped of its planet status. Tom Whipple [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[173,9614,14982,9024],"class_list":["post-52118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-bbc","tag-planet","tag-pluto","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52120,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52118\/revisions\/52120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}