1 SENATE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto,
3 was born on a farm near the Illinois community of Streator; and
4 WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh served as a researcher at the
5 prestigious Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona; and
6 WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh first detected the presence of Pluto
7 in 1930; and
8 WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh is so far the only Illinoisan and
9 only American to ever discover a planet; and
10 WHEREAS, For more than 75 years, Pluto was considered the
11 ninth planet of the Solar System; and
12 WHEREAS, A spacecraft called New Horizons was launched in
13 January 2006 to explore Pluto in the year 2015; and
14 WHEREAS, Pluto has three moons: Charon, Nix and Hydra; and
15 WHEREAS, Pluto's average orbit is more than three billion
16 miles from the sun; and
17WHEREAS, Pluto was unfairly downgraded to a "dwarf" planet
 
1 in a vote in which only 4 percent of the International
2 Astronomical Union's 10,000 scientists participated; and
3 WHEREAS, Many respected astronomers believe Pluto's full
4 planetary status should be restored; therefore, be it
5 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL
6 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that as Pluto passes
7 overhead through Illinois' night skies, that it be
8 reestablished with full planetary status, and that March 13,
9 2009 be declared "Pluto Day" in the State of Illinois in honor
10 of the date its discovery was announced in 1930.