Christmas Pluto still out in the cold

Pluto has always been the outlier and outsider as far as our solar system is concerned. So, when nine years ago it was demoted from full planetary status to ‘dwarf’ — political correctness has no place in the cold world of science, obviously —by the International Astronomical Union ( IAU), it did not cause much of a flutter. But since this July, when Nasa’s New Horizon’s mission made Pluto a social media sensation thanks to the high-resolution image that seems to show that it bears a gigantic heart on its face, the institution seems to have realised the former planet is now a star — and not a dwarf one at that. Thanks to this little(-known) ex-planet, the space agency’s website rocketed to third place in popularity among government domains, after the National Weather Service and National Institutes of Health.

Clearly, the agency has not been daunted by the space shower of ridiculous memes that the heart photo inspired and has fallen back on that planet for its Christmas gesture too — by daubing that image-makeover photograph of Pluto with the season’s colours. Unfortunately, ‘Christmas Pluto’ — possibly the handiwork of Nasa staffers in a hurry to get home and partake of the festive spirit — will not alter the fact that even under the new definition of the word ‘planet’ formulated by the IAU, it does not make the cut.