Less than a year...New Horizons' Pluto countdown

Countdown...

Laurel Kornfeld [Pluto advocate] featured at Astronomy magazine

Quite an honor to be featured at the prestigious Astronomy magazine. She writes about Pluto.

"Guest blog: The case for planet Pluto"

by

Laurel Kornfeld

July 10th, 2014

Astronomy

This guest blog comes from Laurel Kornfeld, a freelance writer and enthusiastic amateur astronomer from Highland Park, New Jersey.

The discovery that our solar system does not end with Pluto does not mandate that we accept the controversial IAU planet definition and artificially keep the number of solar system planets small. It is time to recognize a new paradigm, one in which planets are abundant and include spherical moons of gas giants and dwarf planets. Astronomers and educators should take into account not just the IAU view but also the dissenting one, the geophysical definition of planet and its implications for study of our solar system. That is the paradigm shift I argue in the article below.

Planetary Society blogger Emily Lakdawalla makes valid points discussing the all-too frequent diminishing of the solar system by educators in the wake of the controversial 2006 IAU planet definition vote.

She also argues, correctly, that the solar system of today is a larger, more diverse neighborhood filled with a huge number of planetary bodies, and that it should be conveyed as such by educators.

Where she and other astronomy educators err is in assuming that a broader, more comprehensive study of our solar system and its exotic worlds must be based on acceptance of the IAU planet definition, which precludes all but eight solar system objects from being designated as planets.

I, too, have heard stories of teachers and media correspondents confused in the aftermath of the IAU decision referring to Pluto as either a star, an exoplanet, a moon, an asteroid, a comet, or a gaseous body. Clearly, the IAU decision is responsible for generating far more confusion than clarity.

An expanding solar neighborhood

Interestingly, many teachers do view Pluto as a planet and continue teach it as such. Some teach it as an ongoing debate. My 7- and 10-year-old nephews understand there are two ways of looking at the solar system — one that classifies only the largest bodies as planets and another that views planets as any and all spherical worlds.

While some games, toys, and books have removed Pluto from the lexicon of planets, many printed after 2006 have chosen to include not only Pluto but also the other dwarf planets. Witness Dr. Ken Croswell’s book Ten Worlds and Dr. David Aguilar’s National Geographic book Thirteen Planets.

McDonalds continues to sell Happy Meals in boxes decorated with nine planets, to the dismay of some IAU partisans.

The best teachers trust their students’ intelligence to teach the planet definition issue as what it really is — an ongoing debate. Elon University Physics Professor Tony Crider combined astronomy with role-playing to create a game in which students role play astronomers at a 1999 debate and at the 2006 IAU General Assembly. This original, fun, and informative lesson was introduced in 2011 at a meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. It can be found here.

As an amateur astronomer and writer who does public outreach, I hear many stories of teachers not just including Pluto but also including the five named dwarf planets in lessons about the solar system.

Ironically, The Planetary Society sets an example with its set of holiday ornaments that includes planets, dwarf planets, and spherical moons of the gas giants (satellite planets). I have had lengthy conversations with prominent astronomers and have studied the changing landscape of our solar system. Those studies have led me to reject the notion that the addition of many new small planets in the Kuiper Belt disqualifies Pluto as being a planet too.

Additionally, my experience has been that the IAU vote of 2006 is inherently understood by many to not be the final answer or even a fait d’accompli for both astronomers and educators studying the solar system. We refine our understanding of individual objects by the new data we learn about those objects, not by discoveries made about other bodies.

Three planetary zones

Yes, the architecture of the solar system is different from what it was when today’s adults were growing up. But that difference can just as well be understood as a major expansion of the solar system. Specifically, what we have now are three rather than two planetary zones — the terrestrial planets, the gas giants, and the dwarf planets, with the dwarf planets being the most numerous.

But that does not make them not planets.

Nothing about Pluto’s orbit precludes it from being classed as a planet. While Pluto’s orbit is inclined to the ecliptic by 17°, Mercury’s orbit is inclined by 7°. Many multiplanet exoplanet systems look different from our solar system, with each one of the planets orbiting in a different plane.

Exoplanets are even stranger

At least two exoplanet systems contain two giant planets in 3:2 orbital resonances, the same resonance that exists between Neptune and Pluto. HD 45364 in the constellation Canis Major is one such example.

Gliese 876d, a planet of several Earth masses that orbits closer to its star than Mercury, and WASP-17b, a planet half the width of Jupiter but twice its mass, both orbit their stars backward, meaning in the direction opposite of their stars’ spin.

In the system K0I-730, discovered by the Kepler mission, two planets share a single orbit, taking 9.8 days to circle their parent star.

These examples tell us that neither eccentric orbits nor objects having migrated to different locations from where they initially formed preclude such objects from being designated as planets.

Biggest dwarfs equal smallest planets

You could consider Charon a dwarf planet on its own. The four tiny moons in the Pluto system actually orbit not Pluto alone but Pluto-Charon in various resonances. Pluto and Charon orbit a barycenter between the two objects, making them the only binary planet system orbiting our Sun.

Pluto is estimated to be 70 percent rock, and Eris, being 25 percent more massive than Pluto though slightly smaller in size, is likely more rocky and therefore more planet-like. Many astronomers believe Eris provides an example of what Pluto will look like as it recedes from the Sun, a world with its gases frozen on the surface. Yet a recent study by Dr. Catherine Olkin at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, indicates that Pluto never completely loses its atmosphere in the entirety of its 248-year orbit.

Olkin’s observations revealed that Pluto’s atmosphere is now three times as thick as it was when discovered in 1988, in spite of the fact that the planet has been receding from the Sun since its 1989 perihelion.

She attributes this higher atmospheric pressure to the fact that the area approximately 100 meters below Pluto’s surface retains sufficient heat to keep at least some of the nitrogen in Pluto’s atmosphere gaseous throughout its elliptical orbit.

Does Eris retain any type of atmosphere throughout its 550-year solar orbit? With an aphelion about three times farther than Pluto’s, the likelihood is no, but ultimately, the only way to be certain is to go there. To truly understand these worlds, we need to observe them up close.

Sending New Horizons type missions to such remote worlds will require both international cooperation and advances in propulsion technology to shorten the travel time of robotic missions. Nevertheless, making such exploration a priority is a necessity if we are to become space-faring people familiar with our own celestial neighborhood.

And gaining public support for such missions requires younger generations who are not just aware of these planets’ existence, but are excited by it.

The complex structures of the dwarf planets drives home the point that these are whole, complex, enigmatic worlds—in other words, small planets. That is why it would be inaccurate to imagine the larger worlds of the Kuiper Belt as being akin to the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.

As these faraway worlds slowly give up their secrets, the new knowledge will continually require us to revise classification schemes reflecting the realities of these worlds. It is already conceivable to imagine a subclass of planets that harbor subsurface oceans. Such a subclass might include worlds as diverse as Pluto, Ceres, Europa, Enceladus, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, and Triton.

Finding a subsurface ocean on Pluto may very well presage finding similar bodies of water beneath the surface of many other dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt, Guillaume Robuchon and Francis Nimmo of the University of California at Santa Cruz pointed out in their 2011 article in Astrobiology magazine. Because subsurface oceans could potentially harbor microbial life, every one of these worlds constitutes another potential location for this greatest search of all.

The new solar system

One can, therefore, look at the same data as Lakdawalla and yet draw a very different conclusion about our solar system. Rather than eight planets, our solar system has five terrestrial planets (including Ceres), the closest of which is on a slightly inclined orbit, four large jovians, which can be further subdivided into gas giants and ice giants, and a host of dwarf planets, of which all except one orbit past Neptune. Ceres could be jointly classed as both a terrestrial planet and a dwarf planet.

In the gas giant region, we have a host of spherical moons that, with their complexity, composition, and geology, can be considered secondary or satellite planets. These worlds present some of the most desirable targets for future searches for microbial life and for potential human colonization of the solar system.

Yes, there likely are many more worlds to find beyond Neptune, and there may very well be a Neptune-sized object lurking out there. Significantly, such an object would not fit the IAU definition of planet adopted in 2006 because at such a distance, the chances are it would not “clear its orbit” even at Neptune’s size.

The discoveries of the last 20-plus years have significant implications for science education. Not only should we not drop Pluto from discussions of the solar system; we also should include the newly discovered Kuiper Belt planets, Sedna, Ceres and the large moons of the gas giants.

But why pretend these objects are anything but what they are—fascinating, extremely diverse, unique, but still planets? As New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern often says, the real paradigm shift to which we are still becoming accustomed is not from a solar system with nine planets to one with eight, but from a solar system with nine planets to one with 50, 100, or more.

Visit Laurel's blog anytime for Pluto updates and information...

New Horizons...coming soon

It started with this on January 19th, 2006 and now we are 8 years older and a new window of space exploration will begin in the middle of 2015. I'm on board...#397611

"Countdown to Pluto"

January 14th, 2014

NASA

Are we there yet?

One of the fastest spacecraft ever built -- NASA's New Horizons -- is hurtling through the void at nearly one million miles per day.  Launched in 2006, it has been in flight longer than some missions last, and it is nearing its destination: Pluto.

“The encounter begins next January,” says Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute and the mission’s principal investigator. “We’re less than a year away.”
Closest approach is scheduled for July 2015 when New Horizons flies only 10,000 km from Pluto, but the spacecraft will be busy long before that date.  The first step, in January 2015, is an intensive campaign of photography by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager or “LORRI.”  This will help mission controllers pinpoint Pluto's location, which is uncertain by a few thousand kilometers. 

"LORRI will photograph the planet against known background star fields," explains Stern. "We’ll use the images to refine Pluto’s distance from the spacecraft, and then fire the engines to make any necessary corrections.”

At first, Pluto and its large moon Charon will be little more than distant pinpricks—“a couple of fat pixels,” says Stern--but soon they will swell into full-fledged worlds.

By late April 2015, the approaching spacecraft will be taking pictures of Pluto that surpass the best images from Hubble.  By closest approach in July 2015, a whole new world will open up to the spacecraft’s cameras. If New Horizons flew over Earth at the same altitude, it could see individual buildings and their shapes.

Stern is looking forward to one of the most exciting moments of the Space Age.

“Humankind hasn't had an experience like this--an encounter with a new planet--in a long time,” he says.  “Everything we see on Pluto will be a revelation.”

He likens New Horizons to Mariner 4, which flew past Mars in July 1965.  At the time, many people on Earth, even some scientists, thought the Red Planet was a relatively gentle world, with water and vegetation friendly to life. Instead, Mariner 4 revealed a desiccated wasteland of haunting beauty.  New Horizons’ flyby of Pluto will occur almost exactly 50 years after Mariner 4’s flyby of Mars—and it could shock observers just as much.

Other than a few indistinct markings seen from afar by Hubble, Pluto’s landscape is totally unexplored. Although some astronomers call Pluto a “dwarf” planet, Stern says there’s nothing small about it.  “If you drove a car around the equator of Pluto, the odometer would rack up almost 5,000 miles—as far as from Manhattan to Moscow.” Such a traveler might encounter icy geysers, craters, clouds, mountain ranges, rilles and valleys, alongside alien landforms no one has ever imagined.

“There is a real possibility that New Horizons will discover new moons and rings as well,” says Stern.

Yes, Pluto could have rings.  Already, Pluto has five known moons: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Numerical simulations show that meteoroids striking those satellites could send debris into orbit, forming a ring system that waxes and wanes over time in response to changes in bombardment.

“We’re flying into the unknown,” says Stern, “and there is no telling what we might find.”

Sayonara planet Pluto

Tova Hagler, 10, left, reads through the names of the planets with her brother, Yaakov, 5, as they walk through the Scales of the Universe exhibit at the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Pluto was considered a planet from 1930 to 2006, but is now classified as a trans-Neptunian object.

"The IAU confirms three requirements for planet status: the object must orbit around the sun directly; it has to be big enough so its gravity squeezes into a ball; and it has to have cleared out most other objects in its orbit."

Maybe those criteria need to be changed.

"New rules mean Pluto is no longer a planet"

by

Hope Babowice

January 6th, 2014

Daily Herald

New rules are announced all the time for things like professional sports, driving and politics. Astronomy is no different. In fact, new rules are the reason why Pluto, which had planet status from 1930 to 2006, was demoted to the lesser level of trans-Neptunian object.

"When scientists sharpened the definition of a planet, they realized that Pluto has a lot more in common with the 'Trans-Neptunian objects' than the regular planets," said Dr. Geza Gyuk, director of astronomy at Chicago's Adler Planetarium.

In the early 1900s, a miscalculation led scientists to believe there was something beyond the eight planets in our solar system, so they scoured the skies to locate and identify this mysterious planet. Dubbed Planet X, this space object was presumably the cause of discrepancies in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus, causing them to tug or weave outside of a predictable orbit.

Percival Lowell, the benefactor for the Lowell Observatory at the University of Arizona in Flagstaff, hoped the discovery of Planet X would resolve the unexplained variations.

New on the job in 1930, Clyde W. Tombaugh, a 23-year-old astronomer at the Lowell Observatory, examined photos taken over time and quickly realized that beyond Neptune, an oversized space object existed at the outer reaches of our universe. He named it Pluto.

"When they found Pluto, it was natural to consider it a planet," Gyuk explained. "As it turns out, the measurements of Neptune's orbit were incorrect. There weren't any unexplained tugs after all, and Pluto turned out to be vastly less massive than originally thought."

This and other data led scientists to develop new rules for defining planets.

"In the 1990s and early 2000s, astronomers started discovering a whole bunch of other objects out there that were a lot like Pluto — strange orbits, about the same size, etc.," Gyuk said. "But all of these couldn't be planets, could they?"

The International Astronomical Union, or IAU, is the authority that names and identifies objects in the solar system. The IAU confirms three requirements for planet status: the object must orbit around the sun directly; it has to be big enough so its gravity squeezes into a ball; and it has to have cleared out most other objects in its orbit.

"The eight major planets fall into this definition," Gyuk said. "The asteroids don't, even if some are large enough to the spherical. Pluto and its gang share similar orbits so they aren't planets. Instead, the IAU has classified them as dwarf planets."

Neil deGrasse Tyson smacked by kids over Pluto's status

"6 Angry Letters Kids Sent Neil deGrasse Tyson About Pluto"

by

Lucas Reilly

August 4th, 2013

Mental Floss

In 2000, the Rose Center for Earth and Space opened with a giant model of the solar system as its centerpiece. But something was different about the mega-sized mobile—Pluto was missing. When the New York Times mentioned the missing piece, people started saying, “Hey! What gives?” Six years later, Pluto was officially stripped of its planetary status by the International Astronomical Union, demoting it to “dwarf planet.”

The biggest brouhaha, though, came from teams of elementary school students, who flooded Director Neil deGrasse Tyson’s desk with hate mail. Here’s what some of them had to say, loosely following the five stages of grief.

 

Dear Natural History Museum,

You are missing planet Pluto. Please make a model of it. This is what it looks like. It is a planet.

Love, Will Galmot (Seven years old)

 

Dear Mr. Tyson,

I think Pluto is a planet. Why do you think Pluto is no longer a planet? I do not like your anser!!! Pluto is my faveret planet!!! You are going to have to take all of the books away and change them.

Pluto is a planet!!!!!!!

Your friend, Emerson York

 

Dear scientest,

What do you call Pluto if its not a planet anymore? If you make it a planet agian all the science books will be right. Do poeple live on Pluto? If there are poeple who live there they won’t exist. Why can’t Pluto be a planet? If it’s small doesn’t mean that it doen’t have to be a planet anymore. Some poeple like Pluto. If it doen’t exist then they don’t have a favorite planet. Please write back, but not in cursive because I can’t read in cursive.

Your friend, Madeline Trost

Dear Dr. Neil Tysen degrasse,

At first, remember all of those kids that send you bad letters? Well, I want to apolijize all the things that we were wrong about. We’re sorry about giving you mean letters saying we love Pluto but not you. I’m very sorry. It’ll be ok.

Taylor (Seven years old)

Dear Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson,

I know how you feel. We feel the same about Pluto not being a planet. I’m to but we just have to get over it—that’s science. We to learn about science. Science will make you smart!

Love! Siddiq (Eight years old)

New Horizons getting closer--5AU or about 14 months to Pluto

"On the Path to Pluto, 5 AU and Closing"

October 25th, 2013

NASA

Pluto isn’t quite the next exit on New Horizons’ voyage through the outer solar system, but the destination is definitely getting closer. Today the NASA spacecraft speeds to within five astronomical units (AU) of Pluto – which is less than five times the distance between the Earth and the sun, or about 460 million miles.

"It's exciting to be closing in on the Pluto system,” says Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo. “The encounter begins in January 2015 – just over 14 months from now. You can really feel the energy level rising on this mission!"

Since launch in January 2006, New Horizons has covered more than 2.7 billion miles (4.4 billion kilometers) – about 85 percent of its journey – putting it in an exclusive club of deep-space explorers that includes NASA’s Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. In fact, the next milepost on New Horizons’ path comes next summer, when it crosses the orbit of Neptune on Aug. 25 — exactly 25 years after Voyager 2 made its historic exploration of that giant planet. When New Horizons arrives at Pluto on July 14, 2015, it will have traveled farther than any spacecraft ever has to reconnoiter its prime target.

Use the blog's search engine for more on this mission and Pluto.

Thus spake New Horizons

"The Sounds of New Horizons"

October 21st, 2013

NASA

What does New Horizons say when it calls home? Nothing, without the help of software that transforms zeros and ones from New Horizons’ computers into images, instrument readings, or useful information on the spacecraft’s status. Those datasets are then transmitted to Earth by the telecommunications (radio) system aboard New Horizons.

But if our Pluto-bound spacecraft could talk, it would sound something like the “tune” members of the New Horizons communications team created from actual ranging signals that New Horizons traded with NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) receiving stations earlier this year.

How It Works

The New Horizons team uses these ranging measurements to determine the spacecraft’s orbit, or its precise location in space. The DSN station modulates a ranging code and transmits it to the spacecraft, which demodulates the code (essentially processing the signal to receive the data) and transmits back to Earth. The DSN station then measures the round-trip time delay – in seconds – between transmission and reception of the ranging code. The measurement allows the team to determine the time needed for a signal to travel between the DSN station and the spacecraft.

"The ranging signal is a special sequence of tones sent to the spacecraft and turned around, or transmitted back,” says Chris DeBoy, New Horizons telecommunications system lead engineer from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. “You're hearing those tones as they're received back at Earth, but converted down to a frequency range that the human ear can hear. The ranging technique is just like seeing how much time it takes to hear the echo of your voice reflected off some object to measure how far away you are. Except in this case, the DSN's ‘voice’ is a million or more times higher in frequency than your voice, travels almost a million times faster than the speed of sound, and the round-trip distance is more than 4 billion miles!"

These signals were sent to New Horizons on June 29, 2012, from the DSN station in Goldstone, Calif., and returned to the station in Canberra, Australia. Traveling at the speed of light, the signals made the round trip in six hours, 14 minutes and 29 seconds.

Today, New Horizons is 2.6 billion miles from Earth, between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, speeding 33,200 miles per hour toward a July 2015 encounter with Pluto and its moons.

Sounds of New Horizons

New Horizons

A fuzzy Charon visible

Scientific American's Christopher Crockett wrote...

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, now en route to Pluto, got its first glimpse of the dwarf planet’s largest moon, Charon, in this image released July 10.

Pluto is the bright spot in the center of the image. Charon is the faint smudge up and to the left. New Horizons snapped the picture at about 900 million kilometers from Pluto—six times the distance between Earth and the sun. At that distance, the light from Charon and Pluto takes about 48 minutes to reach New Horizons’s cameras. Charon is roughly the size of Texas, but to the approaching craft it appears no wider than a U.S. quarter seen from 17 kilometers away

Until 2005 Charon was Pluto’s only known moon. Since then astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered four more: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx. Kerberos and Styx are the smallest, each only about a dozen kilometers across; they received their official names just last week.

Launched in early 2006 New Horizons is scheduled to pass within 13,000 kilometers of Pluto in July 2015. The flyby will give astronomers their first close-up look at the tiny world and its moons. Mission scientists will study Pluto’s terrain, composition and atmosphere as well as the space environment in an unexplored, distant corner of the solar system. In the meantime, as New Horizons races toward Pluto, it will frequently snap photos of the dwarf planet’s surroundings to better understand the orbits of the known moons and to look out for potential hazards, such as smaller moonlets or a system of dusty rings.

Pluto belongs to a belt of icy debris beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. Out there, much of the debris left over from the solar system’s formation sits in frozen storage. By studying Pluto and its moons, astronomers learn about more than a single world—they gain access to a record of our solar system’s birth and subsequent growth. In the end, Pluto may be able to tell us more about ourselves and how we got here.

Placating the masses...Pluto's craters

"Pluto's craters could get Star Trek names"

Even though 'Vulcan' has been rejected as the name of one of Pluto's recently discovered moons, an astronomer has left open the possibility of naming some of Pluto's geographical features after Star Trek characters.

by

Eoin O'Carroll

July 3rd, 2013

The Christian Science Monitor

After delivering the devastating news to the 170,000 or so people who voted for "Vulcan" as a name for one of Pluto's recently discovered moons, SETI Institute planetary astronomer Mark Showalter offered Star Trek fans a possible consolation prize.

"We might have craters called Sulu and Spock and Kirk and McCoy and so on," said Dr. Showalter, in a Google Hangout video.

Showalter had just announced that the new official names for Pluto's moons, as selected by the International Astronomical Union, would be Kerberos and Styx, names that received fewer than 100,000 votes each in a public poll.

Even though "Vulcan" had the most votes, the IAU rejected it for two reasons. First, it had been the name of a planet that was thought in the 19th century to exist between Mercury and the sun, as a way of explaining peculiarities in Mercury's orbit. Einstein's Theory of General Relativity did away with the need for this extra planet, but these days, the term "Vulcanoid" describes an asteroid – also hypothetical – that orbits close to the sun.

Second, the IAU said that "Vulcan" didn't fit in with the mythological underworld theme that guided the naming of Pluto's four other moons. Kerberos is the name of the three-headed canine that guards the gates to Hades, and Styx is the name of the river that separates the worlds of the living and the dead, as well as the name of the goddess who guards that river.

Pluto's other moons are named Charon, Nix, and Hydra. Charon is the ferryman who transports the souls of the dead across the Styx; Nix is the goddess of the night who lives in a deep abyss in the underworld, and Hydra is a many-headed serpent who guards a lake that is an entrance to Hades.

So no Vulcan. The name is at once too familiar and insufficiently hellish. But, as the SETI institute's Showalter noted, its still possible that Star Trek fans might get a few craters named for their spacefaring heroes.

And yet, those craters are currently just as hypothetical as Vulcan and the Vulcanoids. There's no reason to believe that Pluto doesn't have them; indeed, it would be surprising if the dwarf planet turned out to be as smooth as a cue ball. But nobody has ever actually seen a Plutonian pockmark.

That's because the sharpest images we have of Pluto were snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope a decade ago. The Hubble's cameras, impressive as they are, can only capture surface variations on the frozen dwarf planet that are more than a few hundred miles across.

We'll probably soon be getting much crisper images, though, thanks to a NASA probe launched in 2006. Designed to study the icy worlds at the edge of our solar system, the New Horizons spacecraft is currently hurtling through space at more than 30,000 miles per hour, some 2.3 billion miles from Earth. It is about half a billion miles away from Pluto, where it is expected to perform a flyby in July 2015.

When New Horizons is about six months away from Pluto, it will be close enough to provide us with the clearest shots yet of the world's surface, along with the opportunity to name its geological features after Kirk, Picard, Spock, Data, Scotty, and perhaps even the seriously underrated Lt. Reginald Barclay.

This would be unlikely to satisfy the original Kirk, however. Upon learning that the best he and his fan base could expect are the bitter dregs of the Pluto system, William Shatner took to his Twitter account to sound off:

"Did you hear the consolation?" wrote Mr. Shatner. "They may name a crater after Kirk. A pockmark on a planetoid is a fitting tribute? (Rolling my eyes.)"

During the Google hangout, Showalter left open the possibility that a planet outside our solar system could still be christened Vulcan.

"I think the IAU is still grappling with the whole issue of how to name extra-solar planets, so I wouldn't rule it out," he said. "But I think the fact that everybody in our field actually knows what Vulcan is, means that it's something we should think twice about before we use it as a name for something else."

But even if Spock's homeworld is never honored, there are plenty of other Star Trek planets out there. According to the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia, as of July 1 there are 900 confirmed planets outside our solar system. That's about 100 more than all the planets mentioned in the Star Trek universe – from Acamar III, a war-torn planet near the Romulan Neutral Zone, to Zytchin III, where Capt. Picard once took a rather unremarkable vacation.

An exoplanet named for a Star Trek planet other than Vulcan – perhaps the most fully realized alien planet in the entire franchise – probably wouldn't placate Trekkers, though. But on the plus side, there would be little risk that J.J. Abrams would blow it up.


P4=Kerberos; P5=Styx...Pluto's new moons

Name those moons...Pluto's children

"Oregon Astronomy Watch: Help Name the New Moons of Pluto"

February 11th, 2013

Oregon Coast Beach Connection

Oh, the plight of poor Pluto. A few years back, the famed last planet in the solar system was downgraded to not even a planet at all, and then eventually bumped up slightly to a planetesimal.

Now, however, the little celestial-body-that-could has what appears to be a new pair of children, and astronomers need help naming them.

Hubble Space Telescope snapped some images in 2011 and 2012 that revealed two previously unknown moons orbiting Pluto. At this time, they are merely called P4 and P5, and astronomers are looking to rectify that. They are asking the public's help in naming the new moons.

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, California, is heading up the name-choosing process. With the website  Plutorocks.com , you can vote for your favorite name.

SETI said the tradition has been that Pluto's moons were named after characters or aspects of Greek myths regarding Hades, or the Underworld. The three Pluto currently has are Charon, Nix and Hydra.

The nominated names to choose from are Acheron, Alecto, Cerberus, Erebus, Eurydice, Hercules, Hypnos, Lethe, Obol, Orpheus, Persephone and Styx. You can vote for those at the website.

You can still write-in your own favorite, however. There is a write-in form on the site.

SETI said the ground rules are: “Feel free to come back, but please do not vote more than once per day, just so everybody gets a fair chance to make their opinion known. We will take your votes and suggestions into consideration when we propose the names for P4 and P5 to the International Astronomical Union (IAU).”

Voting deadline is noon EST on Monday, February 25.

January 19th, 2006...New Horizons

That was the launch date for New Horizons' sojourn to Pluto and beyond. Seven years and just a couple more...time flies. So far, all is good.

"The PI’s Perspective: The Seven-Year Itch"

by

Alan Stern

January 18th, 2013

NASA

It’s been seven years since New Horizons’ launch on Jan. 19, 2006, and our spacecraft remains healthy and on course.

We’re more than halfway between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. In fact, we’re so far along the journey that we’ll cross the orbit of Neptune and enter “Pluto space” in August of next year!

After seven years in flight ­— longer than many science missions operate — it’s fair to say the project team can feel that the Pluto encounter is almost around the corner. After all, 2015 is just the year after next! There’s an increased pace of activity, a sense of anticipation, and a palpable thirst for the images and other data we’ll soon have as our reward for hard work on a project with roots going back to 1989. I call this new phenomenon our “seven-year itch.” And it’s a good itch!

Anniversaries and anticipations aside, let me turn to project news.

This month’s spacecraft wakeup — we were in hibernation from July 6, 2012, until Jan. 6 — is proceeding, with various maintenance and checkout activities, spacecraft tracking work, and a new software load (to squash a pesky bug) all going well. We’ll keep the spacecraft active until Jan. 30, then we’ll put her back into hibernation until May 21, when we wake up for a very busy summer of checkouts and encounter rehearsal activities.

Also this summer, the New Horizons project will be hosting a major conference for the planetary science community. At this conference, which will be held in late July near our mission control center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, planetary scientists from around the world will gather to review everything we know about the Pluto system. They’ll plan ground-based and space-based Pluto system observations to take place in concert with the New Horizons encounter, make scientific predictions about what we will learn from New Horizons, and learn about the spacecraft and payload’s capabilities so they can prepare — as we are — to analyze data from the long flyby.

In July 2014, a similar meeting will be held for the public and educators. That meeting will be broadly webcast, so that thousands or tens of thousands or even more interested people can follow and learn.

Before I close this brief update, I do want to answer a question I get a lot: After all this work, why isn’t New Horizons going into orbit around Pluto?

The reason is actually pretty simple: getting into orbit isn’t practical because of our speed. Remember, New Horizons was the fastest spacecraft ever launched. Even after climbing uphill against the Sun’s gravity for nine years, when we reach Pluto we’ll still be going 30,000-plus miles per hour — very roughly twice the speed of a space shuttle or satellite in Earth orbit. To enter orbit around Pluto we’d need to bleed almost all of that speed off with rockets. And that would require very large rocket engines and a lot of fuel, given our fast trajectory.

The only alternative would have been a slower, longer flight – many decades long – that would have meant a slower arrival, but that wasn’t in the cards either politically or budgetary — not to mention from a standpoint of all of our lifetimes! So, long story short, we can’t get into orbit, and could not find a practical way to design such a mission that could actually be sold to NASA and Congress when we proposed it.

It’s also fair to point out that a flyby has other advantages beyond being a quick mission – taking only 9½ years to cross more than 3 billion miles. The flyby allows us to go on and explore farther into the frontier of the Kuiper Belt, and we like that!

I’ll close with that thought. I plan to provide another update as we near summer’s intensive mission operations. Thanks again for following our journey across the deep ocean of space, to a new planet and a truly new frontier.

Until I write again, I hope you’ll keep on exploring – just as we do!

Use the blog's search engine for more on the New Horizzons' project and Pluto.

Amateur astronomers are vital to astronomy...Laurel Kornfeld

 

Laurel wrote:

Today, academic elitism is a thing of the past. Astronomy is not specialized, privileged knowledge reserved only for a small, exclusive club. The resources to learn the subject, discuss it with others who share an interest, even to pursue formal education online, bring once coveted exclusive knowledge into every living room. People who share not just interests, but particular viewpoints on the subjects of their interest, can organize and create hubs online through which they can quickly disseminate those viewpoints.

This is the new wave of "doing" science. Gone should be the days of dictum[s] by a select committee and participation of the many should be championed.

Astronomy is probably the one science that represents a cooperation between the amateur and professional. Good telescopes are plentiful and Internet data bases accessible. The amateur can see and do what the professionals can do with optics. The universe is vast and cribs many hidden treasures for all astronomers to reveal.

As far as the IAU is concerned, it may well be time to become more flexible and establish swiftly correct and accepted nomenclature.

Amateur scientists
Amateur scientist will collaborate with astronomers
Value of amateur scientists--"Hanny's Voorwerp"
Caroline Moore [14] discovers a rare supernova
Caroline Moore...rising astronomer

We've Kept Planet Pluto Alive    

by

Laurel Kornfeld

August 24th, 2012

On the website http://www.plutoisaplanet.us/ , the count of Pluto’s time taken away already read six years in the afternoon of what was still August 23 in Eastern Daylight Time. That count has been running continuously since “that day,” August 24 six years ago, when four percent of the IAU rushed through a hastily thrown together planet definition resolution that they expected the rest of the world to blindly follow.

“Eight around the Sun they roll. One we just had to let go. Too small is Pluto,” the band One Ring Zero sang in “International Astronomical Union,” a song recorded within months of that controversial decision.

Six years ago, an astronomer who is not an IAU member, who should be taking pride in having discovered several planets, followed this vote with the premature declaration that “Pluto is dead.” That line has evolved over time into “Pluto is still dead,” but more and more, this particular astronomer seems to be trying to convince himself rather than the rest of the world, of the little planet’s “demise.”

On this sixth anniversary of that “embarrassment to astronomy,” as Dr. Alan Stern accurately described the 2006 vote, Planet Pluto is very much alive, and the debate is very much ongoing.

Planet Pluto is alive because of us—all of us, astronomy enthusiasts, members of the public, amateur astronomers, professional astronomers, geologists, planetary scientists, teachers, writers, even kids—would not let it die, would not accept a bad decision simply because 423 people who claimed to be “authorities” dictated it.

I say 423 rather than 424 because my research into the events of 2006 uncovered at least one person, a scientist who spoke only on condition of anonymity, but at the same time a very credible source, who admitted they were bullied into going to Prague just to vote against Pluto, threatened with serious career “consequences” if they did not comply. This is the sort of thing one would expect in the most corrupt circles of the political world, but certainly not in science.

Supporters of the IAU decision decried public opposition to it as based on emotion and sentiment, often contrasting the demoting of Pluto with the demoting of Ceres in the 19th century. Why did no one at that time mount a campaign to save Ceres, they asked. Why are all those “Save Pluto” advocates not also advocating planethood for Ceres?

I believe the answer is the Internet. In the 19th century, chances are many lay people didn’t even know about the existence of Ceres when it was demoted. No one knew what Ceres looked like other than a point of light in the sky, one of many between Mars and Jupiter, none of which could be resolved into disks. And even those who did know Ceres was demoted and might have objected to the decision did not have a way to organize, come together, share information, and influence what was largely a closed, elitist academic world.

Today, academic elitism is a thing of the past. Astronomy is not specialized, privileged knowledge reserved only for a small, exclusive club. The resources to learn the subject, discuss it with others who share an interest, even to pursue formal education online, bring once coveted exclusive knowledge into every living room. People who share not just interests, but particular viewpoints on the subjects of their interest, can organize and create hubs online through which they can quickly disseminate those viewpoints.

When news first came of the IAU decision, many people reacted negatively, refusing to accept what they inherently understood as making little sense. In another time, such people may not have had much power to do anything other than complain about the decision. Today, things are very different. Today, one man or 423 can claim “Pluto is dead,” and an equal or larger number of people can read or hear the transcripts of the debate where the decision was made, research the arguments used, tear those arguments apart in a venue accessible to huge numbers of people, and literally keep the debate—and the little planet—alive.

Because we are asking for it, manufacturers of solar system models, curators of museums and planetariums, programmers designing online solar system simulations, book publishers, teachers, etc. are keeping Pluto in these solar system models or adding it back in after having previously removed it. Some are adding the other dwarf planets as well. Astronomers who write books, articles and blog posts or who embark on lecture tours with the message that “Pluto is dead” can be confronted and have their arguments refuted by anyone who has sufficiently researched the issue and understands the weakness of those arguments.

And when people who are not professional astronomers need help understanding a particular idea or phenomenon, they can turn to almost any expert via email and often gain quick answers to their questions.

Even more significantly, today, amateur astronomers with a computer and Internet connection can take part in actual astronomical research through online programs such as Zooniverse, which can be found here: https://www.zooniverse.org/ . These programs offer opportunities for citizen scientists to take part in a huge range of research activity including classifying galaxies, identifying features on the Moon, finding exoplanets, observing variable stars, and much more.

Today, any of us can search for Kuiper Belt Objects through the Ice Investigators program, the successor to the Ice Hunters program. These searches have been established to assist the New Horizons mission in searching for small nearby KBOs the spacecraft can study after the Pluto flyby. Anyone interested in KBO hunting can get started here: http://cosmoquest.org/iceinvestigators/ .

The Lowell Observatory, site of Pluto’s 1930 discovery, has now established the Lowell Amateur Research Initiative, which offers a wide range of research opportunities for amateur astronomers. More information is available here: http://www.lowell.edu/LARI_welcome.php .

 
Whether the PhDs like it or not, today, members of the public not only can do astronomical research but can also have a say in matters like planet classification. The attempt to demote Pluto failed at least in part because a huge contingent of the public rejected it, and those of us who did have been able to obtain easy access to the data that supports our position. We have been able to connect with one another online, share information and contacts, post actively in forums, write blogs, give teachers and students resources to support our position, and respond as equals to those in the highest level of professional astronomy.

Of course, if our position were erroneous or untenable, this would not have been possible. It is actually because the IAU definition is so flawed and so weak that we have been so successful in challenging it. But challenge it we did, signaling at least to some the dismaying thought that defining planets is no longer just the province of “experts,” that every interested person has a say in this and other science questions.

“We draw the charts and maps,” IAU members are portrayed as declaring in One Ring Zero’s Pluto song. Maybe once upon a time, that was true. Maybe way back when, “experts” made decisions, and everyone else blindly followed.

But not today, not any more. Planet Pluto lives, and the debate over its status and over planet classification and definition is more alive and active than ever. Six years after what was supposed to be the final word, the end of the debate, the fight for Pluto and for a better planet definition has only just begun.

Laurel Kornfeld has a legitimate request regarding astronomical nomenclature

Laurel has for a long time been an advocate for Pluto and in general questioned substantiation of some of the basic definitions adopted and promoted by the IAU [International Astronomical Union]. Here is her current letter to the IAU.

August 22, 2012

Dear Dr. Williams, Members of the IAU Executive Committee, Members of the

Secretariat, Members of the Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature, Members of the Working Group on Small Bodies Nomenclature, and Delegates to the 28th IAU General Assembly,

For the second time, I am writing to respectfully request the General Assembly officially reopen the planet definition issue in order to address ongoing questions and controversy that resulted from the 2006 planet definition vote as well as to incorporate new data on objects in our own solar system and on exoplanets into a more broad, inclusive, and comprehensive understanding that streamlines the spectrum of sub-stellar bodies ranging from tiny asteroids and comets to the largest sub-brown dwarfs in this and in all stellar systems in the universe.

As I did in 2009, I ask specifically that you reconsider and add Resolution 5b from 2006, which would establish “planets” as a broad, umbrella category under which both classical and dwarf planets would be included; that the definition be expanded to include objects that orbit a star or are free-floating, to accommodate exoplanets and rogue planets; and that electronic voting be enabled to allow IAU members who are unable to physically attend General Assemblies to vote remotely.

In the six years since the 2006 vote, there have been significant discoveries in both our solar system and others that call into question the utility of the planet definition then adopted. Many exoplanets since discovered would not fit the planet definition adopted then even if it were expanded to include objects other than those that orbit the Sun. Astronomers have discovered exoplanet systems in which two planets share the same orbit; systems with two giant planets in 3:2 resonances; systems with as many as six planets all orbiting within a distance from their star comparable to Mercury’s orbit; planets that orbit their stars backward; and planets that formed directly from stellar nebulae the way stars do. Many exoplanets discovered have extremely elliptical, even comet-like, orbits.

In our solar system, the Dawn mission has revealed Vesta, which is not quite in hydrostatic equilibrium, to be far more like a terrestrial planet than like an asteroid. Vesta turns out to be a complex, geologically layered body with an iron core that formed in a process similar to the way terrestrial planets like Earth did. Dawn’s revelations have led some astronomers to question whether Vesta should be considered the solar system’s “smallest terrestrial planet. Vesta is not a simple ball of rock. This is a world with a rich geochemical history. It has quite a story to tell,” according to Dawn Principal Investigator Dr. Chris Russell.

As members of the IAU are well aware, Dawn is now departing Vesta and heading for Ceres, which it will study in similar detail.

The initial reason that prompted the 2006 General Assembly to determine a need for defining the term “planet” was the discovery of Eris, which was at the time believed to be larger than Pluto. However, in November 2010, when Eris occulted a star, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Bruno Sicardy determined that Eris is smaller than previously believed, marginally smaller than Pluto though about 27 percent more massive. This is significant because it calls into question the initial “need” for a definition since this “need” was based on erroneous information.

I am troubled by what appears to be an inflexible stand by the IAU, a determination to never reopen the planet definition discussion at any General Assembly, even into the indefinite future. This makes absolutely no sense. The 2006 discussion was based on new data discovered about Eris and the Kuiper Belt. Now, in 2012, we once again have more new data on bodies in this and other solar systems. Three years from now, we will have even more data on small planetary bodies via the Dawn mission to Ceres and the New Horizons mission to Pluto.

How can the IAU justify not reopening this discussion in light of all this new data? If this year’s General Assembly is determined to not take up the discussion, why not commit to putting it on the agenda for 2015? That would be an ideal time to take up the planet question again, as there will likely be a host of new information from the Dawn and New Horizons missions on two of the objects directly at the center of this debate.

As I did in 2009, I emphasize that this request is not about Pluto; it is about the need for a more useful, clear definition that encompasses both orbital dynamics and planetary geophysics, one that covers both our solar system and others.

The IAU considers communicating astronomy with the public as one of its essential tasks. I remind the organization that communication is a two-way street. Members of the public, astronomy enthusiasts, and amateur astronomers have consistently communicated dissatisfaction with the 2006 planet definition resolution. Isn’t it time the IAU hear them and respectfully respond to their concerns instead of ignoring and disenfranchising them?

Planetary science is constantly evolving with new discoveries, and in light of this, it makes sense that definitions will need to be updated and refined continuously. The 2006 vote was a first attempt at a definition, but it should not be considered a final one. This is not religion, where an authoritative body speaks once for all eternity, issuing a decree that can never be changed. By reopening the planet definition discussion, the IAU will affirm its relevance and flexibility through willingness to constantly reconsider previous decisions when new data call those decisions into question.

However, if the IAU continues to dig in its heals and refuse to even consider a new discussion on planet definition, the organization risks being viewed as emotional, bureaucratic, and dogmatic, and will become increasingly irrelevant as an authoritative body on the science of astronomy. At that point, other groups and individuals will very likely fill the void and take up the issue on their own, to the point that the matter may fall completely outside the influence of the IAU.

In order to further respectful two-way communication with the public, I urge the IAU to actively seek input on important issues such as this one from a broader population, including professional astronomers who are not IAU members, amateur astronomers and groups representing them, and astronomy students at all levels.

Regardless of the fact that no action on the planet classification issue has been planned for this General Assembly, I implore the IAU’s leadership, delegates to the GA, and members to do what needs to be done, to show courage and sensitivity to both scientists and lay people by admitting the planet definition issue remains unresolved and by adding a provision to this year’s GA reopening the planet definition discussion, or at least committing to putting it on the agenda of the 29th GA in 2015.

More specifically, I also ask that the Resolutions Committee place a resolution on the General Assembly floor for a vote on August 31, 2012, to officially reconsider resolution 5b of 2006, which if passed would establish dwarf planets as a subclass of planets. I also ask that a second resolution be put to the GA floor to include exoplanets in all further planet definition discussions. Finally, I ask that a resolution allowing for electronic voting be adopted before any other resolutions are considered to allow the IAU’s full membership to vote on all relevant issues, a provision badly needed in these difficult economic times when so many cannot afford the expense of travel and lodging to attend the GA in person.

Sincerely,

Laurel E. Kornfeld

Highland Park, NJ, USA

Writer, amateur astronomer, astronomy student and blogger

http://laurelsplutoblog.blogspot.com

http://laurele.livejournal.com

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New Horizons stamp--one week left

PARTICIPATE

"New Horizons Stamp Drive Completes a 10K – and Keeps Going!"

March 7th, 2012

NASA

As fast as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is heading toward Pluto, the drive to honor this historic exploration of the ninth planet is speeding toward its finish. Less than a week remains to put your name on the petition supporting an effort for the U.S. Postal Service to commemorate Pluto and New Horizons on a postage stamp.

In just over a month since the drive was announced, more than 10,000 people have signed the online petition. But mission leads would like to have many more signatures before they close out the list on March 13 – the 82nd anniversary of the announcement of Pluto’s discovery by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.

Articles and support for the stamp drive have come from Astronomy, Space.com, Discover’s “Bad Astronomy” blog, The Planetary Society, the National Space Society, MSNBC’s Cosmic Log and many others. With these highly appreciated endorsements spreading the word across the space science universe, signatures have come in from across the U.S. as well as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland and other nations.

“Thanks to all who have signed on and are helping to make this happen!” says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern. “We hope you’ll keep telling your friends to sign on, and ask them to tell their friends to tell their friends to sign. Post it on Facebook, change your profile picture to the stamp, Tweet about it, e-mail it to family members, and send it around your workplace. And if you haven’t signed on yet, hurry – March 13 is just a week away!”

Launched in January 2006, New Horizons is currently 2.1 billion miles from home, flying some 34,000 miles per hour toward a July 2015 encounter with Pluto and its moons, which are just over 3 billion miles from Earth. The mission team started the formal stamp proposal last month, knowing the USPS requires proposals three years or longer before an actual stamp can result.

Sign the petition


Commemorative stamp for New Horizons

Commemorative stamp for New Horizons

Design by Dan Durda

New Horizons Aims to Put Its Stamp on History

New Horizons will make history when it explores the Pluto system in July 2015. Plans for the flight past Pluto and its moons are well under way – and now, so is an effort to petition the U.S. Postal Service to commemorate the mission’s achievements on a stamp.

“You can help make this happen,” says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern. “We’re asking people to sign a petition, because the post office considers not just the merits of a new stamp proposal, but also whether it is supported by a significant number of people. This is a chance for us all to celebrate what American space exploration can achieve though hard work, technical excellence, the spirit of scientific inquiry, and the uniquely human drive to explore.”

Deceased--Patricia "Patsy" Edson Tombaugh

Patricia "Patsy" Edson Tombaugh
November 7th, 1912 to January 12th, 2012

"Community leader, wife of astronomer, Tombaugh dies at 99"

by

S. Derrickson Moore

January 13th, 2912

Alamogordo Daily News

Patricia "Patsy" Edson Tombaugh, community leader, educator, artist, and enthusiastic supporter of her astronomy pioneer husband Clyde, discover of the planet Pluto, died Thursday at the Arbors of Del Rey in Las Cruces. She was 99.

"Mother was born Nov. 7, 1912, and hoped to enjoy celebrating her 100th birthday with New Mexico's Centennial this year, but her body just gave out," said her daughter Annette Tombaugh Sitze of Las Cruces.

She was in Florida for the 2006 launch of the New Horizons Pluto Probe, which carried Clyde's ashes, and expressed hopes to live to see it reach Pluto in 2015.

She met Clyde Tombaugh shortly after his 1930 discovery of Pluto, when he entered Kansas University as a freshman in 1932, and stayed at her mother's rooming house. They were married in 1934 and had two children, Annette and Alden, both Las Cruces residents.

Known for her sense of humor, she once joked that "Pluto was his first love" and she had to compete with several planets, comets and assorted other heavenly bodies to attract his attention.

But it was clear, through their six-decade marriage that she was the love of his life, and it was her connections that steered the course of his life after his early astronomical coup.

"My uncle, James Edson, my mother's brother, introduced them and it was my uncle, who also brought Werner von Braun here, who was responsible for bringing them to Las Cruces in 1946," Sitze said.

As Chief of Optical Measurements Section at White Sands Proving Ground, Tombaugh was responsible for the tracking telescopes used to photograph rockets and missiles during test flights, and his wife quickly established herself as a community leader here.

She was a founder of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Las Cruces, one of the area's first art associations, and the Community Concerts Association and was active in the University Women's Association, the Women's Improvement Association and the Tombaugh Scholars Program Foundation at NMSU.

She also taught for many years at regional schools, including Old South Ward, Valley View and Connelly elementary schools.

"I think she'll be remembered as a vibrant person very interested in the arts and education. We were very fortunate to have had them as our parents. We could always believe in the truth of what they said. They developed a home that was reliable and cozy," said her son Alden Tombaugh.

She worked closely with Clyde on lecture tours throughout the world until his death in 1997 in their Mesilla Park home. She was a frequent guest at some regional institutions that bear the family name, including Clyde Tombaugh Elementary School, NMSU's Clyde W. Tombaugh Campus Observatory and Tombaugh IMAX Dome Theatre at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo.

She attracted new friends and fans after her 2010 appearance on "The Pluto Files" on PBS's NOVA series, focusing on the conflict over the 2006, still-controversial meeting of the International Astronomical Union, when a vote involving 424 astronomers defined the term "planet" for the first time, a definition which excluded Pluto and added it as a member of the new "dwarf planet" category.

The NOVA crew came to Las Cruces 2009 to film locations that included Alden Tombaugh's home and the Tombaugh Art Gallery, which houses a stained glass window depicting Clyde's life, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, which the Tombaughs helped found in 1954.

"She spoke lucidly and articulately about their life together. This was a treasure of storytelling. That has got to be the friendliest family I have ever spent time with in my life. I learned how friendly people can be, even in times of intellectual conflict," said NOVA host Neil Tyson. Tyson had been one of the ringleaders in the effort to demote Pluto, but changed his mind after meeting Patricia and her family.

In addition to her son and daughter, she leaves five grandchildren, nine great-granchildren and one great-great grandchild.

"New Horizons Team Remembers Patsy Tombaugh"

January 16th, 2012

It was January 2006, just days before the New Horizons spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. A reporter asked Patsy Tombaugh, widow of Pluto’s discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh, what her husband might have thought about the first mission to the planet he found in 1930.

“He’d be very happy about it,” she said, “because he’d really want to know what they were finding out about Pluto.”

Today, the team fulfilling that wish mourns Patsy Tombaugh, who died Jan. 12 in Las Cruces, N.M. She was 99.

"I will never forget Patsy's enthusiasm in New Horizons and her pride in what we're doing,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, from the Southwest Research Institute. "I'll also never forget her smile and winning way. On behalf of the entire New Horizons team, I want to express our condolences to Patsy's family and friends, and to say that when we explore Pluto in three years, she will be as much on our minds and in our hearts, as she is today."

Patricia “Patsy” Edson met Clyde Tombaugh in the spring of 1933; her older brother James and Clyde were astronomy majors at the University of Kansas, and good friends. They married in June 1934; daughter Annette was born in 1940 and son Alden in 1945. But, as Patsy wrote in a 2005 New Horizons web story, their “family” seemed much larger.

“Living with Clyde Tombaugh was like having the celestial universe in the next room, but I found it a very good neighbor,” she wrote.

“Of course, I always had to share Clyde not only with Mars, Jupiter, the Moon, and stars, but also with the public. As the Space Age grew so did Clyde's fan mail. From all over this world came letters from all age groups asking for information or autographs. He once said that he had received at least 30,000 letters. He tried to answer each one.”

Clyde died in 1997. In addition to her son and daughter, Patsy is survived by five grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. A memorial service is planned for Feb. 12 in Las Cruces.

"My Life with Clyde Tombaugh"

by

Patricia E. Tombaugh

October 31st, 2005

Living with Clyde Tombaugh was like having the celestial universe in the next room, but I found it a very good neighbor. Mars and the Moon were his favorite telescopic studies. At the age of 12 Clyde found astronomy through his love of geography. What would be the geography of other planets?

When Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in February 1930, I was in high school at Westport High in Kansas City, Missouri. I graduated in 1931, and about a year later my widowed mother moved us to Lawrence, Kansas. There, her three children were to work their way through their father's (J.O. Edson's) alma mater, the University of Kansas.

I met Clyde in the spring of 1933. He and my older brother, James B. Edson, were astronomy majors and good friends at KU. James brought Clyde to rent a room at our house for the next school year. Clyde returned to Lowell Observatory for the summer, and we exchanged letters during that time.

In the fall of 1933, Clyde (who had a scholarship) returned to Lawrence to be a student roomer at our house. During that year the Syzygy Club formed. The club's six or seven members met at our house. We talked of rockets and space travel, space platforms and astronauts. We never spoke to the outsiders about this. They thought we were really and completely crazy. I had painted tennis balls to look like Mars and Jupiter. Clyde thought any girl who was that into astronomy was pretty cool. We were married June 7, 1934, with a small event at my mother's home. I had finished my freshman year and Clyde his sophomore year. I was 21, and he was 28.

We spent summers in Flagstaff, Arizona, at Lowell Observatory as we worked our way through college. Clyde was still on the project searching for a 10th planet. We lived in a small, brown, shingled cottage on the observatory grounds among the pine trees 300 feet above the town. We cooked and heated with wood fires and had no refrigerator, telephone, or washing machine. It was a new experience for this city girl, but I loved this beautiful and interesting place, meeting very special people, and getting acquainted with the ways of various Native American tribes there. Flagstaff's population then was about 4,000 people.

Clyde finished his first degree in 1936. We then went to live and work at the observatory full-time. After saving up for two years we returned to KU. Clyde received his master's degree in astronomy, and I finished my degree in philosophy in 1939. We returned to Flagstaff and to parenthood: daughter, Annette, was born in 1940 and son, Alden, in 1945. In 1942, we bought a house in Flagstaff and moved off of Mars Hill into town.

During World War II Clyde had been called to teach navigation to new Navy pilots at the Northern Arizona College. He was also Commander of Civil Defense for Coconino County, Arizona. At the end of WW II many changes occurred rapidly. In 1945, Clyde was a visiting professor at UCLA. In 1946, he left Lowell Observatory. We moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he was Chief of the Optical Measurements section at White Sands Proving Grounds (WSPG). There the American Space Age was in its birth pangs. We watched the delivery with great joy and excitement! The children grew, and I worked on the New Mexico State University campus at the Physical Science Laboratory reading rocket film and plotting flight trajectories.

After nine years with rockets, Clyde wanted to get back into astronomy. He proposed and received a grant to search for small natural satellites of the Earth. He left WSPG (now WSMR, for White Sands Missile Range), moving this project to the Physical Science Laboratory on the NMSU. campus. Clyde later established a Planetary Research Center there, which was supported by grant money. These efforts led to the creation of a Department of Astronomy for a doctoral degree program at NMSU, and also a leading observatory called Apache Point. Apache Point is financed and used by a consortium of universities and the Sloan Digital Project exploring the outer edge of the universe.

Of course, I always had to share Clyde not only with Mars, Jupiter, the Moon, and stars, but also with the public. As the Space Age grew so did Clyde's fan mail. From all over this world came letters from all age groups asking for information or autographs. He once said that he had received at least 30,000 letters. He tried to answer each one.

Clyde had minored in geology to apply that knowledge to the study of Mars and the Moon. He later taught geology at NMSU. He collected rocks everywhere. He carried an Earth globe in his head and loved maps and glass - colored or clear. He had a weather station of his own and made a graph of rainfall in Las Cruces over the years showing drought periods. He was a master at creating telescope mirrors and always had one in process.

Clyde loved animals. He said he spent more time with horses on the farm than with his family. He knew the game of football. He was once asked to call a play at an NMSU game - that call resulted in a field run and a touchdown. They gave him an "honorary coach" plaque.

The press, media, civic clubs, and schools gained from Clyde's willingness to share his passion for the study of the heavens. He was an excellent teacher. A beautiful Las Cruces elementary school carries his name. Being a Depression child on a farm, he kept everything and delighted in making trash into something. He had a cluttered desk in his office - I called it organized chaos. Yet he knew where each thing was hidden among the pile.

Las Cruces loved Clyde. Three of our governors named a state day to honor him. Schoolchildren over the world love Pluto. It is small like they are.

Clyde would have been very excited and interested in the new 10th planet. His life was not wrapped around Pluto. His life was wrapped around the study of the whole universe. Of course, Pluto made him a star to others, and he tried to satisfy the demand. He said his most reverent moments were at the eyepiece of a telescope.

Clyde W. Tombaugh was a caring person. He wanted to give young people credit for their role in any project. Thus, giving them a good start in the field.

Clyde was granted his wish to reach age 90, living to within three weeks of being 91. He was one happy man the day of his 90th birthday party - many family members, friends from the days of White Sands, NMSU, and the Unitarian Church that he helped to establish in Las Cruces were there to help him celebrate. He died on January 17, 1997.

Clyde and I were a great team.

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Personal thoughts and reflection by Laurel Kornfeld...

"In Memoriam: Patsy Tombaugh, 1912-2012"

January 20th, 2012

One week before the sixth anniversary of New Horizons’ launch on January 19, Patricia (Patsy) Edson Tombaugh, widow of Pluto’s discoverer Clyde Tombaugh, died in Las Cruces, New Mexico, at age 99.

To many “Pluto huggers”—a term coined by Mike Wrathell to describe supporters of Pluto’s planet status—this loss feels personal. Whether we had had the good fortune of meeting her, or whether she was an icon we admired for her longevity, tenacity, and many accomplishments, to so many of us, it feels like we have lost a family member.

Patsy Tombaugh was so much more than the wife of an astronomer. She was a teacher, a promoter of the arts, an active member of women’s advocacy groups, a co-founder of Las Cruces’ Unitarian Universalist Church, along with her husband, a promoter of education and of the Tombaugh Scholars Foundation at New Mexico State University, and since 2006, a staunch advocate for Pluto’s planet status.

And she had dreamed not only of celebrating her 100th birthday this coming November, but of seeing the 2015 New Horizons flyby of the planet her husband had discovered way back in 1930, before the two were married, when Patsy was still in high school.

She attended the New Horizons launch in 2006, an event that moved her to tears. She also took part in the dedication of her late husband’s telescope at Rancho Hidalgo in 2009. That same year, she was present when the New Mexico House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring March 13 Pluto Planet Day, in defiance of the IAU vote.

When that vote took place, Patsy initially remarked that she had “lost her job” promoting Pluto and keeping it in the public eye, assuring the little world didn’t get forgotten in the wake of so many new discoveries in the outer solar system—not to mention discoveries in other solar systems entirely.

But that reaction didn’t last. She was invited to take part in a 2009 Nova TV version of The Pluto Files organized by Neil de Grasse Tyson, who was so impressed with the kindness and friendship of the Tombaugh family when he visited them in New Mexico, that he actually began rethinking his position on Pluto. Reviewed on this blog three years ago, that Nova episode featured a Tyson who had gone from saying he “killed” Pluto to one who publicly recognized the existence of an ongoing debate, even placing a plaque in the Rose Center noting that Pluto’s status remains in dispute. Towards the end of the episode, Tyson invites Tombaugh daughter Annette to the Rose Center in New York City and proudly displays the plaque to her.

Unfortunately, Patsy was unable to attend the 2008 Great Planet Debate. The family was well represented, however, as Annette, her husband Wilbur Sitze, and their grandson Kyle were all there—and signed the petition I would send to the IAU General Assembly one year later.

Patsy was very much a woman ahead of her time. In an age when few women pursued post-secondary education, she worked her way through college, earning a degree in philosophy from the University of Kansas in 1939.

Along with her brother James Edson, an astronomy major, and Clyde, his friend whom she met in 1933, she actively participated in a group known as the Syzygy Club, a small group of six or seven young visionaries who discussed issues like space travel and rockets. Today, or even back in the 1960s, such groups and discussions are common and mostly well accepted, but in the 1930s, that was not the case. The group never spoke to outsiders about the Syzygy Club for fear of being thought crazy, Patsy noted in a 2005 essay, “My Life with Clyde Tombaugh.”

Her interest in astronomy was exciting to Clyde, as he knew few women who shared that interest. After the Tombaughs were married, she accompanied him to Flagstaff, Arizona, where he worked at the Lowell Observatory. In the early days, that meant “roughing it,” living without phones, refrigerators, or washing machines, and cooking with wood fires. While there, Patsy took the time to meet members of various Native American tribes and learn their ways—a practice that did not become popular in the general culture until the 1960s.

Like Jules Verne back in the 1860s, visionaries are all about imagining the future, thinking beyond the limitations of the present day. Patsy and her husband Clyde were such visionaries, which is why it is not surprising that she set her sights on seeing Pluto up close in 2015.

So many astronomy and space exploration fans, including those who disagree with classing Pluto as a planet, had been rooting for Patsy to live this dream. Still vibrant and active at 99, she became a symbol of longevity and tenacity, a link between the past and the future, an inspiration to others that life could be not just a long journey, but an exciting one, filled with wonder and trust in what could be.

Writer Alan Boyle reports that when he visited Patsy in 2009, she realized the Pluto discussion was not going away any time soon. “It looks like we’re going to have to keep on discussing this,” he quotes her as telling him.

No question about that! And no shortage of people eager to discuss it!

One cannot help but feel sadness at the realization that Patsy will not be with us to realize her dream of seeing the New Horizons Pluto flyby. Yet at the same time, we can also honor a life well lived, a life ten months short of a century.

A friend and commenter on Facebook, on hearing of her passing, said, “I really hoped she’d live to see Pluto…She can see it perfectly now though.”

In their tribute to New Horizons, the band Elias-Fey sings, noting the presence of some of Clyde’s ashes on the spacecraft, “Ole Clyde’s hitching a ride back to where he belongs. Far out of this world, to infinity and beyond. You gotta believe. Because that’s what keeps us moving on. An American dream to where no one’s ever gone.”

I choose to believe that my Facebook friend is right, that Patsy can see Pluto perfectly now. And I know too many people to count will be thinking of her when the flyby happens three years from now.

Farewell, and rest in peace, Mrs. Tombaugh.

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And Clyde named an asteroid after her...asteroid 3310 [Patsy] [October 9th, 1931].

Thanks to Laurel K. for the notice.