The Pluto Story by Professor Ian Robson

This talk is about the erstwhile planet Pluto, how it was discovered and how discovery and observations of the Kuiper Belt Objects eventually led to the International Astronomy Union (IAU) in 2006 to declassify Pluto from being a planet. Although ‘what is a planet?’ might seem to be an easy question to answer, it turns out that the ensuing debate by professional astronomers was both complicated and fractious. The twists and turns of how Pluto finally came to be demoted by the IAU are revisited on a personal basis – astronomy democracy in action – or not, and what was the legacy from the decision and what have we learned from the New Horizons space mission to Pluto and beyond.

Professor Robson has been Head of Dept of Physics and Astronomy at UCLAN; Director of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii; Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and Director of the Science and Technology Facility Council’s Technology Department. He has undertaken extensive research in the fields of Active Galaxies and submillimetre astronomy and wrote an undergraduate textbook on Active Galactic Nuclei.

Professor Robson is very active in outreach and was the first President of the International Astronomy Union’s (IAU) Commission for Communicating Astronomy with the Public. He led the UK programme for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. He was the International Astronomy Union Assistant General Secretary for 2018-19 and has been President of the Society for Popular Astronomy and the Royal Scottish Society for the Arts. He was Vice-president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2021-23 and received the prestigious Service Award in 2024.

The meeting will also include a news item of interest and a tour of the night sky.

We look forward to seeing you.