Pluto
This is not a selfie of Pluto. NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

The New York Times, with a little help, just threw down the gauntlet. On a selfie, no less. The Gray Lady wants you to understand that it totally knows what a selfie is and the proper way to describe such a photo. As on point as they are on all things trendy -- we're looking at you, Next Brooklyn, U.S.A. -- they nail the essence of the selfie. If you're ever confused about what taking a photo means, bookmark the article, print it or memorize it so you can use it for the future.

Selfies are here to stay. The act of taking a photo of yourself was added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary in 2014. Scrabble also added it to its dictionary last year. A selfie, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera especially for posting on social networks." So why is the New York Times defining the selfie in 2015? Well, it's because they may have goofed a bit in their excitement over New Horizons' flyby of Pluto.

Jason Feifer, an editor at Maxim, noticed something of an error in Dennis Overbye's article for the Times. In "A Window Into Pluto, and Hopes of Opening Other Doors," Overbye wrote, "It was an extraordinary time for a cosmic selfie, a historic day in space and here on Earth." Pluto can't take a selfie and New Horizons didn't take a photo of itself, so Feifer wanted a correction. His email went viral and New York Times science editor Sarah Graham said Overbye was not referring directly to New Horizons and it was meant to be metaphorical.

While there has been no correction, Feifer will likely be fine settling for his own editorial in the Opinion section of the Times. Even if you take of a photo of yourself during an existential crisis, that's still a selfie, he explains in the piece. Taking a photo of pizza, while delicious, is not a selfie. Plenty of valuable lessons can be found in Feifer's piece and will settle the selfie debate for good.

Curiosity Selfie
A selfie taken by the Curiosity rover. NASA/JPL-Caltech