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PBS Space Time

Season 2019 · Episode 30

Is Pluto a Planet?

0.019mSeptember 23, 2019

You know what a planet is, right? A big round thing that orbits a star. Uh, not so fast. The surprisingly vicious debate over the planetary status of Pluto has given us a fascinating glimpse into what a scientific definition really is. And perhaps the word planet is too vague to be used as a scientific definition at all.

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Episodes

Episode 1Are Dark Matter And Dark Energy The Same?
Episode 2Our Antimatter, Mirrored, Time-Reversed Universe
Episode 3The Crisis in Cosmology
Episode 4Perpetual Motion From Negative Mass?
Episode 5Sound Waves from the Beginning of Time
Episode 6Secrets of the Cosmic Microwave Background
Episode 7The Impossibility of Perpetual Motion Machines
Episode 8Will You Travel to Space?
Episode 9Is Dark Energy Getting Stronger?
Episode 10Could the Universe End by Tearing Apart Every Atom?
Episode 11The Edge of an Infinite Universe
Episode 12The Holographic Universe Explained
Episode 13No Dark Matter = Proof of Dark Matter?
Episode 14The Real Science of the EHT Black Hole
Episode 15Why Quantum Computing Requires Quantum Cryptography
Episode 16The Cosmic Dark Ages
Episode 17The Alchemy of Neutron Star Collisions
Episode 18How Black Holes Kill Galaxies
Episode 19The Quasar from The Beginning of Time - STELLAR
Episode 20Thorium and the Future of Nuclear Energy
Episode 21The Quantum Internet
Episode 22Did Time Start at the Big Bang?
Episode 23Deciphering The Vast Scale of the Universe - STELLAR
Episode 24What Caused the Big Bang?
Episode 25Exploring Arecibo in VR 180
Episode 26What Happened Before the Big Bang?
Episode 27How To Become an Astrophysicist + Challenge Question!
Episode 28Is Earth's Magnetic Field Reversing?
Episode 29Could We Terraform Mars?
Episode 30Is Pluto a Planet?
Episode 31How Many Universes Are There?
Episode 32Black Hole Harmonics
Episode 33Loop Quantum Gravity Explained
Episode 34Is Time Travel Impossible?
Episode 35Why We Might Be Alone in the Universe
Episode 36Does Life Need a Multiverse to Exist?
Episode 37Can You Observe a Typical Universe?
Episode 38Is The Universe Finite?
Episode 39The Doomsday Argument
Episode 40Do Black Holes Create New Universes?