Bill Text: IL HR0225 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Declares 2015 as "The Year of Pluto" and urges the International Astronomical Union to reinstate Pluto's status as a planet.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-1)
Status: (Passed) 2015-04-29 - Added Co-Sponsor Rep. Jack D. Franks [HR0225 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2015-HR0225-Introduced.html
| |||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| ||||||
| 2 | WHEREAS, Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto, | ||||||
| 3 | was born on a farm near the
Illinois community of Streator; and
| ||||||
| 4 | WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh served as a researcher at the | ||||||
| 5 | prestigious Lowell Observatory
in Flagstaff, Arizona; and
| ||||||
| 6 | WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh first detected the presence of Pluto | ||||||
| 7 | in 1930; and
| ||||||
| 8 | WHEREAS, Dr. Tombaugh is the only Illinoisan and the only | ||||||
| 9 | American to ever discover a
planet; and
| ||||||
| 10 | WHEREAS, For more than 75 years, Pluto was considered the | ||||||
| 11 | ninth planet of the Solar
System; and
| ||||||
| 12 | WHEREAS, A spacecraft called New Horizons was launched in | ||||||
| 13 | January of 2006 to explore
Pluto in 2015 with Dr. Tombaugh's | ||||||
| 14 | ashes aboard the spacecraft; and
| ||||||
| 15 | WHEREAS, Pluto has 5 moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, | ||||||
| 16 | and Styx; and
| ||||||
| 17 | WHEREAS, Pluto's average orbit is more than 3 billion miles | ||||||
| 18 | from the sun; and
| ||||||
| |||||||
| |||||||
| 1 | WHEREAS, Pluto was unfairly downgraded to a "dwarf" planet | ||||||
| 2 | in a vote in which only 4% of the International Astronomical | ||||||
| 3 | Union's 10,000 scientists participated; and
| ||||||
| 4 | WHEREAS, Many respected astronomers believe Pluto's full | ||||||
| 5 | planetary status should be
restored; therefore, be it
| ||||||
| 6 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 7 | NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
| 8 | urge the International Astronomical Union to restore Pluto to | ||||||
| 9 | full planetary status; and be it further
| ||||||
| 10 | RESOLVED, That we declare 2015 as "The Year of Pluto" in | ||||||
| 11 | honor of Dr. Clyde Tombaugh and the discoveries to be made by | ||||||
| 12 | the New Horizons spacecraft; and be it further
| ||||||
| 13 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 14 | delivered to the International Astronomical Union.
| ||||||
