By now, you’ve probably figured out that I’m writing about Pluto. Specifically the object orbiting our solar system that was discovered by New Mexico State University Astronomy Professor Clyde W. Tombaugh. It was first declared to be the ninth planet when discovered in 1930, then in 2006 the International Astronomical Union dumbed it down and declared it just a lowly dwarf planet.
There was much controversy about that when it happened. Al Tombaugh, Clyde Tombaugh’s son who I worked with for many years in my career in banking, led a protest around the NMSU campus when the demotion occurred, carrying signs and chanting “size doesn’t matter — it’s a real planet.” The effort to return the object’s status to a planet was unsuccessful, however.
Actually, it kind of looks like a planet to me. It’s spherical in shape, has five moons and orbits the sun. The orbit, however, is huge, tilted away from other planets’ orbits and is elliptical. It takes 248 earth years to complete a full orbit of the sun. At one point in its orbit, it passes closer to the sun than Neptune.
Tombaugh, who at one time lived in a house just two blocks south of our home in Mesilla Park, made a methodical search at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ , for a suspected ninth planet in the solar system. Percival Lowell, after whom the Flagstaff observatory was named, had concluded that a “Planet X” existed because of the interference of some object on the orbit of the planets Uranus and Neptune. He died before he could find it, but Tombaugh persevered and identified it on Feb. 18, 1930.
I think I might have met Tombaugh in person a time or two. What I do remember is him slowly driving around our neighborhood at an age where he probably shouldn’t still be driving any more, hunched over the steering wheel of a battered brown Toyota pickup.
Tombaugh didn’t name the planet Pluto, which is the name of the Greek God of the Underworld. That was decided by the Lowell Observatory, which first considered Minerva and then Cronus, but then settled on Pluto because of its connection to other Greek gods who had been namesakes for other planets in our solar system.
The name Pluto also came to be associated with a Walt Disney character, a non-anthropomorphic mixed breed dog with short yellow hair, black ears and expressive eyes. He is Mickey Mouse’s pet.
Created by Disney and animator Norm Ferguson, Pluto had appeared in three films before he was given his current name in a feature called “Moose Hunt” in 1931. There was speculation that the name was adopted because of the extensive publicity surrounding the recent discovery of ninth planet. But one Disney animator named Ben Sharpsteen remembered it this way:
“We thought the name [Rover] was too common, so we had to look for something else. … We changed it to Pluto the Pup … but I don’t honestly remember why.”
Another person in the Disney studios said they thought Walt Disney himself once had a dog named Pluto and selected the name because of that.
What triggered all my rambling about Pluto was my accidental discovery of the map below on a neighborhood internet bulletin board:
Yes, that’s New Mexico highlighted in purple, which still strongly believes that Pluto is a real planet. I have no idea why Illinois is conflicted about the issue when the rest of the 48 states appear to have gotten over the demotion of New Mexico’s favorite celestial body. And I have no idea where the map above originated and how that information was gathered. I do suspect that it is correct, however, knowing how passionate we New Mexicans seem to get over such seemingly esoteric things as:
- Why did Aliens choose New Mexico for their first (botched) landing on Earth?
- Why do we think a paper bags, sand and candles make good Christmas decorations?
- Who makes the best green chile cheeseburger in the state?
aero-cordero.com 