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
Dwarf planet list of hundreds of candidate objects, ranging from "nearly certain" to "possible" dwarf planets."" As of Feb 2018, Brown's list includes 952 objects, identifying ten known trans-Neptunian objects—the four accepted by the IAU plus the six bodies: , , , , and —as "near certain", with another 26 "highly likely". Notably, (1535 km) has a larger diameter than the dwarf planet Makemake (1430 km). Stern states that there are more than a dozen known dwarf planets. Only two of these bodies, Ceres and Pluto, have been observed in enough detail to demonstrate that they actually fit the IAU's definition. The