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SENATE RESOLUTION


 
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    WHEREAS, Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto, 
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was born on a farm near the Illinois community of Streator; and

 
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    WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh served as a researcher at the 
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prestigious Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona; and

 
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    WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh first detected the presence of Pluto 
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in 1930; and

 
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    WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh is so far the only Illinoisan and 
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only American to ever discover a planet; and

 
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    WHEREAS, For more than 75 years, Pluto was considered the 
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ninth planet of the Solar System; and
 
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    WHEREAS, A spacecraft called New Horizons was launched in 
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January 2006 to explore Pluto in the year 2015; and
 
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    WHEREAS, Pluto has three moons: Charon, Nix and Hydra; and
 
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    WHEREAS, Pluto's average orbit is more than three billion 
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miles from the sun; and
 
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    WHEREAS, Pluto was unfairly downgraded to a "dwarf" planet 
 


 






SR0046
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LRB096 04130 KXB 14171 r




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in a vote in which only 4 percent of the International 
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Astronomical Union's 10,000 scientists participated; and
 

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    WHEREAS, Many respected astronomers believe Pluto's full 
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planetary status should be restored; therefore, be it

 
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    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL 
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ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that as Pluto passes 
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overhead through Illinois' night skies, that it be 
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reestablished with full planetary status, and that March 13, 
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2009 be declared "Pluto Day" in the State of Illinois in honor 
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of the date its discovery was announced in 1930.