The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet (19 page)

Resolution of the International Astronomical Union on the Definition of a Planet

IAU Resolution 5A

Adopted 24 August 2006, Prague, Czech Republic

Passed by overwhelming majority of 424 attendees of the session

Definition of a Planet in the Solar System

Contemporary observations are changing our understanding of planetary systems, and it is important that our nomenclature for objects reflect our current understanding. This applies, in particular, to the designation “planets.” The word “planet” originally described “wanderers” that were known only as moving lights in the sky. Recent discoveries lead us to create a new definition, which we can make using currently available scientific information.

RESOLUTION 5A (Passed with overwhelming majority vote.)

The IAU therefore resolves that “planets” and other bodies in our Solar System, except satellites, be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:

(1) A “planet” is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
⁵²

(2) A “dwarf planet” is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.
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(3) All other objects except satellites orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as “Small Solar-System Bodies”.
⁵⁴

New Mexico Legislation Relative to Pluto’s Planetary Status

New Mexico 48th Legislature Joint 54 House Memorial Declaring Pluto a Planet, and March 13, 2007 “Pluto Planet Day”

Introduced by Representative Joni Marie Gutierrez (Democrat, District 33, Dona Ana County),
March 8, 2007

WHEREAS
, the state of New Mexico is a global center for astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science; and

WHEREAS
, New Mexico is home to world class astronomical observing facilities, such as the Apache Point observatory, the very large array, the Magdalena Ridge observatory and the National Solar Observatory; and

WHEREAS
, Apache Point observatory, operated by New Mexico state university, houses the astrophysical research consortium’s three-and-one-half meter telescope, as well as the unique two-and-one-half meter diameter Sloan digital sky survey telescope; and

WHEREAS
, New Mexico state university has the state’s only independent, doctorate-granting astronomy department; and

WHEREAS
, New Mexico state university and Dona Ana county were the longtime home of Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto; and

WHEREAS
, Pluto has been recognized as a planet for seventy-five years; and

WHEREAS
, Pluto’s average orbit is three billion six hundred ninety-five million nine hundred fifty thousand miles from the sun, and its diameter is approximately one thousand four hundred twenty-one miles; and

WHEREAS
, Pluto has three moons known as Charon, Nix and Hydra; and

WHEREAS
, a spacecraft called
New Horizons
was launched in January 2006 to explore Pluto in the year 2015;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
that, as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico’s excellent night skies, it be declared a planet and that March 13, 2007 be declared “Pluto Planet Day” at the legislature.

California Legislation Relative to Pluto’s Planetary Status

California Assembly Bill HR36 Relative to Pluto’s Planetary Status
Introduced by Assembly Members Keith Richman, M.D. (Republican, District

38—northwest Los Angeles County) and Joseph Canciamilla (Democrat, District 11—Contra Costa County, San Francisco Bay Area),
August 24, 2006

WHEREAS
, Recent astronomical discoveries, including Pluto’s oblong orbit and the sighting of a slightly larger Kuiper Belt object, have led astronomers to question the planetary status of Pluto; and

WHEREAS
, The mean-spirited International Astronomical Union decided on August 24, 2006, to disrespect Pluto by stripping Pluto of its planetary status and reclassifying it as a lowly dwarf planet; and

WHEREAS
, Pluto was discovered in 1930 by an American, Clyde Tombaugh, at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, and this discovery resulted in millions of Californians being taught that Pluto was the ninth planet in the solar system; and

WHEREAS
, Pluto, named after the Roman God of the underworld and affectionately sharing the name of California’s most famous animated dog, has a special connection to California history and culture; and

WHEREAS
, Downgrading Pluto’s status will cause psychological harm to some Californians who question their place in the universe and worry about the instability of universal constants; and

WHEREAS
, The deletion of Pluto as a planet renders millions of text books, museum displays, and children’s refrigerator art projects obsolete, and represents a substantial unfunded mandate that must be paid by dwindling Proposition 98 education funds, thereby harming California’s children and widening its budget deficits; and

WHEREAS
, The deletion of Pluto as a planet is a hasty, ill-considered scientific heresy similar to questioning the Copernican theory, drawing maps of a round world, and proving the existence of the time and space continuum; and

WHEREAS
, The downgrading of Pluto reduces the number of planets available for legislative leaders to hide redistricting legislation and other inconvenient political reform measures; and

WHEREAS
, The California Legislature, in the closing days of the 2005–06 session, has been considering few matters important to the future of California, and the status of Pluto takes precedence and is worthy of this body’s immediate attention; now, therefore, be it

Resolved
by the Assembly of the State of California, That the Assembly hereby condemns the International Astronomical Union’s decision to strip Pluto of its planetary status for its tremendous impact on the people of California and the state’s long term fiscal health; and be it further

Resolved
, That the Assembly Clerk shall send a copy of the resolution to the International Astronomical Union and to any Californian who, believing that his or her legislator is addressing the problems that threaten the future of the Golden State, requests a copy of the resolution.

Selected Books on Pluto and the Outer Solar System

G
ENERAL
A
UDIENCES

Asimov, Isaac.
How Did We Find Out About Pluto?
New York: Walker & Company, 1991.

Davies, John.
Beyond Pluto.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Elkins-Tanton, Linda.
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the Outer Solar System.
New York: Chelsea House Productions, 2006.

Jones, Tom, and Ellen Stofan.
Planetology: Unlocking the Secrets of the Solar System
. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2008.

Lemonick, Michael.
The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos.
New York: Atlas/Norton, 2008.

Minard, Anne, and Carolyn Shoemaker.
Pluto and Beyond: A Story of Discovery, Adversity, and Ongoing Exploration.
Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Publishing, 2007.

Sparrow, Giles.
The Solar System: Exploring the Planets and Their Moons, from Mercury to Pluto and Beyond.
San Diego: Thunder Bay Press, 2006.

Stern, Alan, and Jacqueline Mitton.
Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System.
New York: Wiley-VCH, 2005. Sutherland, Paul.
Where Did Pluto Go?
Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest, 2009.

Tocci, Salvatore.
A Look at Pluto.
London: Franklin Watts, 2003.

Weintraub, David A.
Is Pluto a Planet?: A Historical Journey Through the Solar System.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

C
HILDREN’S
B
OOKS

Asimov, Isaac, Frank Reddy, and Greg Walz-Chojnacki.
A Double Planet?: Pluto and Charon.
Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 1996.

Cole, Joanna.
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System.
New York: Scholastic Press, 1992.

Cole, Michael.
Pluto: The Ninth Planet.
Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2002.

Kortenkamp, Stephen J.
Why Isn’t Pluto a Planet?: A Book About Planets.
New York: First Facts Books, 2007.

Orme, David, and Helen Orme.
Let’s Explore Pluto and Beyond (Space Launch!).
Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2007.

Simon, Tony.
The Search for Planet X.
New York: Basic Books, 1962.

Wetterer, Margaret.
Clyde Tombaugh and the Search for Planet X.
Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books, 1996.

S
OURCES OF
D
ATA

Jet Propulsion Laboratories: jttp://ww.jpl.nasa.gov

Lang, Kenneth R.
Astrophysical Formulae,
vols. 1 and 2. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1999.

NASA: http://www.NASA.gov

US Naval Observatory: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/

The Pluto Files
was seven years in the making. Over this time, Pluto became a topic in all conceivable media: television, radio, news articles, comics, op-eds, letters to the editor, and Internet blogs. In sleuthing and selecting the best of these contributions, I am grateful to my research assistant Alison Snyder, whose efforts easily halved the production time this book would have otherwise required. Alison further tracked down and secured permissions from all media sources herein represented, but especially from the letter writers themselves, many of whom were in elementary school when they first wrote, but are now in high school or college.

And so I take this opportunity to thank all of those people—students, teachers, parents, other grown-ups, and colleagues who agreed to lend their correspondence to this volume.
The Pluto Files
exists because of that generosity.

I further thank my brother-in-law Richard Vosburgh, whose expertise on Disney is surely without equal in the land. His research and general base of knowledge greatly enriched my discussions of Pluto the dog and everything else that was Disney in
The Pluto Files
.

Even though he and I stood on opposite sides of the Pluto debate, I benefited from my long friendship, beginning in graduate school, with MIT professor of planetary sciences Richard Binzel. He reliably served and continues to serve as my link to the affairs of the solar system and its motley crew of orbiting objects.

I am further grateful for comments on the manuscript offered by my colleagues Steven Soter at the American Museum of Natural History, Ed Jenkins, of Princeton’s Department of Astrophysics, and NASA grammarian Stephanie Schierholz Fibbs.

Parts of
The Pluto Files
were freely adapted from my essays for
Natural History
magazine “The Rise and Fall of Planet X” (June 2003), “Pluto’s Honor” (February 1999), and “On Being Round” (March 1997), and from “Requiem for a Solar System,” written for
Discover
magazine (November 2006).

Preface: Copyright © Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. chapter 1: Copyright © Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. chapter 1: Courtesy of the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago, Illinois. chapter 1: Timre Surrey Photography, 2007. chapter 1: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2002. chapter 1: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2002. chapter 1: Public domain. chapter 1: Venetia Phair Burney. The author has tried but failed to locate the copyright owner of the photograph of Venetia Burney, and will pay a sensible fee if such person comes forward and proves ownership. chapter 1: Royal Astonomical Society / Photo Researchers, Inc. chapter 1: Bill Day, 2006,
The Commercial Appeal.
chapter 1: Copyright © Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. chapter 1: Paul McGehee, 1986. chapter 2: Gary Brookins, 2006,
Richmond Times-Dispatch.
chapter 2: Lowell Observatory Archives. chapter 2: Lowell Observatory Archives. chapter 2: A. J. Dressler and C. T. Russell, “The Pending Disappearance of Pluto,”
EOS
61, no. 44 (1980): p. 690. Copyright © 1980 American Geophysical Union. Reproduced/modified by permission of American Geophysical Union. chapter 2: Steven Soter, private communication. chapter 3: FoxTrot, Copyright © 2006 by Bill Amend. Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved. chapter 3: Alison Snyder. chapter 3: Alison Snyder. chapter 3: United States Naval Observatory. chapter 3: United States Naval Observatory. chapter 3: Vincenzo Zappalá, full astronomer, Astronomical Observatory of Torino, Italy. chapter 3: NASA. chapter 3: Courtesy of Richard Binzel. chapter 3: NASA/JHU/APL/SwRI; image Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2006. chapter 3: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2006. chapter 3: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2006. chapter 3: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2006. chapter 3: NASA. chapter 3: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team. chapter 4: Copyright © 2006 by Jimmy Margulies,
The Record
, and PoliticalCartoons.com. chapter 4: NASA. chapter 4: David Jewitt and Jane Luu, 1992. chapter 4: J. Kelly Beatty, 1996. chapter 4: Tom Briscoe,
Small World.
chapter 4: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2000. chapter 4: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2000. chapter 4: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2000. chapter 4: Marilyn K. Yee /
New York Times /
Redux. chapter 4: NASA/ESA/A. Field (STScI). chapter 5:
The Joy of Tech
by Nitrozac and Snaggy; www.joyoftech.com. chapter 6. Copyright © 2006 by Pat Bagley,
Salt Lake Tribune,
and PoliticalCartoons.com. chapter 6: The International Astronomical Union. chapter 6: The International Astronomical Union / Lars Holm Nielsen. chapter 7: Charles Almon. chapter 7: Copyright © 2006 by Bob Englehart,
Hartford Courant
, and PoliticalCartoons.com. chapter 7: Courtesy of the California Institute of Technology. chapter 8: Copyright © 2006 by R. J. Matson,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, and PoliticalCartoons.com. chapter 9: Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2007. chapter 9: Copyright © 2006 by Aislin,
Montreal Gazette
, and PoliticalCartoons.com. Appendix F: Copyright © 2006 by R. J. Matson,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
and PoliticalCartoons.com.

Thanks also to all those song writers and the many letter and e-mail writers who gave permission to quote or reprint from their correspondence with me and with others: Mike A’Hearn, Brooke Abrams, Howard Brenner, Don Brownlee, Dan Burns, Siddiq Canty, CCNet, Jonathan Coulton, Timothy Ferris, Will Galmot, John Glidden, Lindsey Greene, Dave Herald, Wes Huntress, Diane Kline, Christine Lavin, Steve Leece, Geoff Marcy, Jeff Mondak and Alex Stangl, Michael Narlock, Bill Nye, Benny Peiser, Robert L. Staehle, Alan Stern, Ian Stocks, Mark Sykes, Madeline Trost, Taylor Williams, and Emerson York.