Pluto Confronts Neil deGrasse Tyson About Being Demoted From Planet to Dwarf Planet

Posted on March 19, 2014

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is currently hosting the show Cosmos, an updated version of the classic series written and hosted by Carl Sagan. But Dr. Tyson is best known in popular culture for being the guy that got Pluto demoted from planet to dwarf planet. He was even taken to task for kicking Pluto out of the planet club on the hit show The Big Bang Theory.

In the seventh episode of Season 4, called "The Apology Insufficiency," Dr. Sheldon Cooper lights in to Dr. Tyson for his mistreatment of Pluto. Dr. Tyson, in a hilarious cameo, tries to apologize to Sheldon, but is rebuffed.

Dr. Tyson was a guest on Late Night With Seth Meyers to talk about Cosmos, but he got a nasty surprise when Pluto showed up in the audience to confront him. Pluto challenged Dr. Tyson's assertion that he is not a planet. Now we all know there are three requirements to being a planet, according to the International Astronomical Union ("IAU"): it must orbit the Sun, it must have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape and it must have cleared the neighborhood of its orbit. That last one's going to be a bit tricky, because Pluto's mass is not larger than the other bodies that cross its orbit. But Dr. Tyson managed to state his position and end the feud with Pluto. They even hugged it out. Take a look:

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