Support for Recognition of Pluto as a Planet

SUPPORT FOR RECOGNITION OF PLUTO AS A PLANET -- (Extensions of Remarks - December 19, 2007)

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SPEECH OF
HON. JERRY WELLER
OF ILLINOIS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2007

* Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my support for the renewed recognition of Pluto as a planet.

* The planet Pluto was discovered on January 23, 1930, by Clyde Tombaugh. Although just 24 years of age with no formal education beyond high school, Mr. Tombaugh discovered this new planet by painstakingly and systematically examining and comparing photographic plates he had made of the night skies over New Mexico. For this achievement, Mr. Tombaugh received a prestigious award from the Royal Astronomical Society along with a scholarship to the University of Kansas, which allowed him to continue his formal education.

* Clyde Tombaugh went on to make a large number of additional contributions to our knowledge of the universe and to receive many more awards and honors before his death on January 17, 1997. I am proud to note that Mr. Tombaugh was born on February 4, 1906, on a farm near Streator, IL, in LaSalle County--a community which I am privileged to represent in the Congress of the United States.

* Unfortunately, on August 26, 2006, the International Astronomical Union, IAU, meeting in Prague and relying on the votes of only a handful of its approximately 10,000 members, made the decision to downgrade the status of Pluto.

* This decision was met with protests from eminent scientists and astronomers all over the world. Perhaps foremost among those in the international scientific community strongly disagreeing with the IAU decision was Dr. S. Alan Stern. Named earlier this year by Time magazine as one of the ``One Hundred Most Influential People in the World'', Dr. Stern is also one of the lead consultants for the New Horizons Mission.

* The New Horizons Mission is an unmanned spacecraft launched in January of 2006, which is projected to reach Pluto and the outer edge of our solar system in the year 2015. This

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spacecraft is carrying some of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh.

* In closing, I urge my colleagues to express their support for the reversal of the International Astronomical Union's decision and the official reinstatement of Pluto as the ninth and outermost planet in our solar system.

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