aesmael

    Now it seems they are planning to increase NASA's budget but cut planetary exploration, particularly the Martian program even though the rovers seem to be doing fine.

    According to John Scalzi|Whatever, New Mexico is considering legislation [resolution text*] to declare Pluto a planet. This is probably because Clyde Tombaugh apparently came from the county the Representative responsible represents (isn't it nice when they do that?).
    The official stance of the International Astronomical Union is, as I am sure everyone knows by now, that Pluto is not considered a planet because it has not "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit". Instead, it is what they call a dwarf planet.
    My official stance, which I try to repeat every chance I get in hopes of the idea picking up momentum, is that the IAU made the wrong decision. Pluto should be considered a planet, but because it is not the most dynamically significant body in its orbit (it is locked in a 3:2 resonance with Neptune and even without Neptune there are many other KBOs of comparable size 'nearby') it should be considered a minor or dwarf planet, as you will. The main difference is that it, Eris and Ceres would still be planets, just a particular kind. Under the IAU resolution that is a seperate class of thing, not a sub-classification.
    Also I really like the idea of making Pluto|Charon a double planet. Wouldn't that be neat?


*According to this resolution, merely discovering another moon of Pluto would de-planet it again.