Yesterday the Illinois Senate decided enough was enough. No longer would they suffer the implied ignominy caused when the discovery of one of their natural-born sons was so spectacularly demoted in the standing of the most-august International Astronomical Union. And so, in the fashion of all legislatures who are similarly perturbed, they took decisive action.
On the historic twenty-sixth day of the month of February, in the year 2009, the Illinois Senate declared:
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SENATE RESOLUTION |
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WHEREAS, Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto, |
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was born on a farm near the Illinois community of Streator; and |
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WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh served as a researcher at the |
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prestigious Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona; and |
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WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh first detected the presence of Pluto |
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in 1930; and |
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WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh is so far the only Illinoisan and |
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only American to ever discover a planet; and |
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WHEREAS, For more than 75 years, Pluto was considered the |
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ninth planet of the Solar System; and |
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WHEREAS, A spacecraft called New Horizons was launched in |
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January 2006 to explore Pluto in the year 2015; and |
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WHEREAS, Pluto has three moons: Charon, Nix and Hydra; and |
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WHEREAS, Pluto's average orbit is more than three billion |
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miles from the sun; and |
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WHEREAS, Pluto was unfairly downgraded to a "dwarf" planet |
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LRB096 04130 KXB 14171 r |
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in a vote in which only 4 percent of the International |
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Astronomical Union's 10,000 scientists participated; and |
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WHEREAS, Many respected astronomers believe Pluto's full |
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planetary status should be restored; therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL |
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ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that as Pluto passes |
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overhead through Illinois' night skies, that it be |
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reestablished with full planetary status, and that March 13, |
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2009 be declared "Pluto Day" in the State of Illinois in honor |
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of the date its discovery was announced in 1930. |
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Streator lies about 65 miles southwest of Fermilab, as the crow flies, but the resolution takes effect throughout Illinois. At this time Fermilab astrophysicists have made no official statement about the effects on their work.
(Thanks to Govert Schilling for the tip about this, via @govertschilling.)
