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Zinho [soylentnews.org] writes:

The internet is abuzz with rumors that Pluto may rejoin the official list of Planets around the Sun. Scientific American lists some new findings supporting Pluto's planetary status [scientificamerican.com], including a Methane atmosphere and a new (larger) estimate of its diameter.

The Real fireworks, however, are political. According to USA Today the real issue is a turf battle in the IAU [usatoday.com] between Owen Gingerich, the chair of the IAU Planet Definition Committee, and Gareth Williams, associate director of the IAU's Minor Planet Center. At least they're not being secretive about it; the two of them took to the stage on September 18th 2014 and had a public debate on the topic. [harvard.edu] The sticking point for the Minor Planet Center is that the current IAU definition requires a planet to have "cleared its neighborhood", which Pluto has not (it crosses orbits with Neptune).

Dimitar Sasselov, director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, offered a third opinion in the debate from an Exoplanet researcher's perspective. Sasselov argued that the IAU's definition of planet also requires orbit around our sun, with the ridiculous conclusion that none of the exoplanets we've discovered are actually planets. He then suggested a new definition that laid aside the Sol-specific and cleared-neighborhood requirements. The audience full of Harvard students voted to accept this definition and reinstate Pluto as a planet. It remains to be seen whether the results of this debate swayed the minds and hearts of the Minor Planet Center or the IAU as a whole.

The full debate can be seen on the Youtube channel ObsNights. [youtube.com]

I think my favorite commentary [al.com] on this comes from IanHoppe of AL.com:

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