Neil DeGrasse Tyson Talks Pluto With Stephen Colbert, Explains Why Earth Could Be A Dwarf Planet

Well, that is until Tyson says he’d be open to downgrading Earth too if it meant Pluto couldn’t regain its planet status. Colbert asked. To that, the Director of the Hayden Planetarium related Pluto to automobiles.

Colbert has always been an unabashed geek, so he sat down with the Internet’s favorite scientist, Neil deGrasse Dyson, to dig into the New Horizons mission and what we’re learning from the project.

On Tuesday, July 14, NASA made history by reaching Pluto for the first time as their New Horizons spacecraft flew over the dwarf planet at just 7,550 miles above the surface. “It looks like a planet, it’s got atmosphere it even has a heart – unlike you, who will give it no love”. Luckily, Tyson was sitting right next to him.

Colbert took Pluto’s side and rebuffed deGrasse Tyson, saying, “It looks like a planet”. It’s an interesting, meandering, and amusing chat that features a lot of talk about Dante’s Inferno, what Tyson would rather re-define as NOT a planet as opposed to giving Pluto back its full planet title, and plenty of Tang. Colbert then grilled Tyson over his purportedly “blasé” reaction to the flyby.

In a brief moment of seriousness, Tyson said, “It’s not every day where you get to be the first eyes that set on a completely undiscovered land”.

Bethania Palma Markus is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist.