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The Pluto Files

1. Original Title: Terri Randall
2. Author: Terri Randall
3. Editor: Jedd Ehrmann
4. Photography: Steve Baum
5. Music: Rampage Music
6. Sound: Jim Keen, Chris White
7. Producer: Terri Randall
8. Production: NOVA/WGBH
9. USA
10. 55 min.
11. 2010

For more than 75 years, the great stage of our solar system had a familiar cast of characters, nine players in all: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars (the rocky planets), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, (the gas giants), plus a lonely little planet all the way out at the very edge of the solar system.
Discovered as late as 1930, located far away from us, different from any other planet in size and orbit, Pluto may well be the best-known planet of all. But in recent years it has lost its starring role. In 2006 I.A.U., the International Astronomical Union, voted in favour of demoting Pluto from its role as a planet- a decision that unexpectedly raised an uproar among astronomy fans.
Featuring contributions from internationally renowned astronomers, planetary scientists and historians of astronomy, this documentary enables viewers to expand their understanding of Pluto; it reenacts the historical circumstances that led to its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh; it goes through the peculiarities that make this object so special compared to the 8 planets of the solar system; it tells how, soon after it was discovered, the newly-founded Disney Brothers Studios launched a new character, a playful bloodhound called Pluto, who still entertains children from all over the world today; last but not least, it highlights how the decision to ‘demote’ Pluto was by no means trivial and deeply fraught with unsolved scientific questions.