Posted on Sun, Aug. 13, 2006

Kansan’s find faces celestial status loss

Astronomers will convene this month to consider dropping Pluto from planets’ ranks.
By MATT STEARNS
The Star’s Washington correspondent

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WASHINGTON | In articles about his life, they always called Clyde Tombaugh “a Kansas farm boy,” as if to draw sharp contrast with the cosmic magnitude of his signature achievement.

Discovering a planet, after all, is a rare distinction. There are, most schoolchildren will tell you, only nine in our solar system.

But soon, there could be eight: Pluto, that Kansas farm boy’s best-known scientific contribution, faces demotion.

At a conference in Prague, Czech Republic, later this month, the International Astronomical Union, which oversees such matters, is scheduled to consider a resolution that defines a planet.