The Problem with Pluto
When is a planet not a planet?
Travel on a research craft heading to the uncharted limits of the Solar System. Learn how Pluto is different from the other planets and discover the challenges of working out just what a planet should be.
The Problem with Pluto takes a modern look at our once familiar Solar System. It presents a lively debate over Pluto’s planetary status; a debate that had been looming from the moment Pluto was discovered, over 70 years ago.
If you could vote on Pluto’s status how would you make up your mind? What are the characteristics that all good planets should have? Lucy and her teenage friends, who live on various planets in the Solar System, think they should know the answer but find that it’s not so easy. Lucy’s mother, who is a scientist, is given the job to settle the argument once and for all.
The last decade as seen some major new discoveries within the Solar System and in response scientists have had to rethink their views. Science, history and sentiment all played a part in reorganising our Solar System. But as Lucy comes to realise, it’s not really a question of what’s right or wrong but in looking for the answer, that we discover what’s important after all.