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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto,
3was born on a farm near the Illinois community of Streator; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh served as a researcher at the
5prestigious Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh first detected the presence of Pluto
7in 1930; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh is the only Illinoisan and the only
9American to ever discover a planet; and
 
10    WHEREAS, For more than 75 years, Pluto was considered the
11ninth planet of the Solar System; and
 
12    WHEREAS, A spacecraft called New Horizons was launched in
13January of 2006 to explore Pluto in 2015 with Dr. Tombaugh's
14ashes aboard the spacecraft; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Pluto has 5 moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos,
16and Styx; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Pluto's average orbit is more than 3 billion miles
18from the sun; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Pluto was unfairly downgraded to a "dwarf" planet
2in a vote in which only 4% of the International Astronomical
3Union's 10,000 scientists participated; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Many respected astronomers believe Pluto's full
5planetary status should be restored; therefore, be it
 
6    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
7NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
8urge the International Astronomical Union to restore Pluto to
9full planetary status; and be it further
 
10    RESOLVED, That we declare 2015 as "The Year of Pluto" in
11honor of Dr. Clyde Tombaugh and the discoveries to be made by
12the New Horizons spacecraft; and be it further
 
13    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
14delivered to the International Astronomical Union.