Reinstate Pluto's Status as a Planet

On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved a resolution declaring that Pluto is no longer recognized by the astronomical community as a planet. (The text of the resolution is available at http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0603/index.html)

From now on, according to the IAU, Pluto will be categorized as a dwarf planet. This classification will be shared with perhaps hundreds of other objects, including at least one asteroid. In other words, Pluto has gone from being recognized as the ninth planet in the solar system to instead being just another rather large and distant rock.

Pluto was originally discovered by a 24-year-old astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930 at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. His discovery was the culmination of a decades-long search begun in 1905 by Percival Lowell for a mysterious Planet X which was theorized to exist outside the orbit of Neptune.

Mr. Tombaugh died in 1997, leaving behind a wife, two children, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

It is reasonable to assume that Mr. Tombaugh went to his grave secure in the knowledge that among his other significant contributions to science he had discovered the ninth planet in the Solar System. During his long career, Mr. Tombaugh, an important American astronomer, discovered many distant celestial objects, including two comets and several star clusters. As his sister Esther Spreen said shortly after his death, This may be a loss as far as his physical being is concerned but his achievements will never be lost to us. (http://www.klx.com/clyde/lawson.html) One can't help but think that Mr. Tombaugh's family regard his discovery of Pluto as one of his proudest achievements.

For 76 years, literally generations of schoolchildren have memorized his discovery as the furthest planet from the sun, and have learned a great deal about astronomy and physics as they've studied its eccentric orbit.

To designate Pluto as being something other than a planet at this late date is to do a tremendous disservice to Mr. Tombaugh's memory. It is a petty act which is the result of a scientific argument over nomenclature that even most schoolchildren would recognize as juvenile. Further, it is an act by a relatively small group of 2,500 scientists who are representative of only the tiniest fraction of the public at large.

After nearly eight decades of tradition in recognizing that the Solar System consists of nine planets, reclassifying Pluto as a dwarf planet or trans-Neptunian object is decidedly unsatisfactory decision which should be reversed immediately. This decision is an affront to millions of members of the public who regard Mr. Tombaugh's discovery as one which revealed a significant truth about our planetary neighborhood.

We, the undersigned, call upon the IAU to renounce this decision and immediately and permanently reclassify Pluto as the ninth planet in the Solar System.