Neil deGrasse Tyson is a professional astronomer and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. He is a former chairman of The Planetary Society and has served on the President’s “Moon, Mars and Beyond” commission, where he helped guide NASA’s space exploration policy.
Earlier this decade, Tyson inadvertently set off a firestorm of debate when he brought the public’s attention to an ongoing reevaluation of the icy outer solar system. He ended up being known in the media as “The Man Who Demoted Pluto”. Of course, things aren’t exactly that simple and Dr. Tyson has written a book, The Pluto Files, about his experiences with the icy dwarf planet.
In the first part of our interview with Dr. Tyson, he talks about how he got tied up in this controversy, speculates on future space exploration, and makes a startling prediction about discoveries he thinks might be just around the corner.
Here in part 2 of our interview we get a little more in depth about the controversy over Pluto and it’s eventual demotion.
[Interviews edited by Steve Crump]