(February 18) Today we're celebrating . . . Pluto Day
Pluto Day
On this day in 1930, the planet of Pluto was discovered by an astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. In 2006, poor Pluto was demoted to a “dwarf planet” by a consensus decisions of modern astronomers.
photo credit: via flickr
February 18th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
The controversial demotion of Pluto was not done by “a consensus of modern astronomers” but by only four percent of the International Astronomical Union, most of whom are not planetary scientists. The decision was immediately opposed by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. You can find a copy of that petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest/ . This debate is far from over, and even now, many scientists and lay people are working behind the scenes to get the demotion overturned. Pluto is a planet!