IAU definition of planet who had theorized on the existence of the large trans-Neptunian object Planet X, and Tombaugh been searching for Planet X when he found Pluto. Almost immediately after its discovery, however, astronomers questioned whether Pluto could be Planet X. Willy Ley wrote a column in 1956 titled "The Demotion of Pluto", stating that it "simply failed to live up to the advance publicity it received as 'Planet X' before its discovery. It has been a disappointment all along, for it did not turn out to be what one could reasonably have expected". In 1978, Pluto's moon Charon was discovered. By measuring
Definition of planet Pluto, such as Quaoar and Sedna, continued to erode arguments that Pluto was exceptional from the rest of the trans-Neptunian population. On July 29, 2005, Mike Brown and his team announced the discovery of a trans-Neptunian object confirmed to be more massive than Pluto, named Eris. In the immediate aftermath of the object's discovery, there was much discussion as to whether it could be termed a "tenth planet". NASA even put out a press release describing it as such. However, acceptance of Eris as the tenth planet implicitly demanded a definition of planet that set Pluto as an arbitrary minimum