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
IAU definition of planet Carnegie Institution of Washington, a subgroup of the IAU met on August 18, 2006 and held a straw poll on the draft proposal: only 18 were in favour of it, with over 50 against. The 50 in opposition preferred an alternative proposal drawn up by Uruguayan astronomers Gonzalo Tancredi and Julio Ángel Fernández. Under this proposal, Pluto would have been demoted to a dwarf planet. On 22 August the draft proposal was rewritten with two changes from the previous draft. The first was a generalisation of the name of the new class of planets (previously the draft resolution had explicitly