Fresh off voting to remove its ethically questionable and impeccably coiffed governor from office, the Illinois senate has moved on to more important matters: making Pluto a full planet again.
In addition to overruling the International Astronomical Union (IAU)’s demotion of the planet (at least within the state), the unanimously-approved bill also designated March 13, 2009 as “Pluto Day,” since Illinois’ own Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto on that date in 1930.
Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006, because it didn’t meet the requirement that a planet clear the area around it of debris due to its gravity. Ever since the IAU’s diss, many people—including astronomers, other state legislators, and ordinary citizens—have criticized the organization’s definition of a planet, which was formulated by only 424 of 2,412 IAU astronomers. The IAU subsequently decided to show Pluto some love by classifying it and all dwarf planets beyond Neptune’s orbit as “plutoids.”
