Pluto.

Pluto is a good planet and he just keeps coming back home – despite what the supposed experts would have us believe.

In the February 2013 issue of National Geographic, Astronomer Alan Stern goes on record rejecting the 2006 demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet status.

Good for Alan.

Dr. Stern seems a space nut. He hails from St. Mark’s School just up Preston Road here in Dallas, spent time at the University of Texas in Austin and the University of Colorado in Boulder, collecting all the requisite degrees. He almost flew on the space shuttle. Teacher, researcher, businessman, he is now the lead scientist for the New Horizons mission to Pluto.

New Horizons is a robotic spacecraft that is reported to have left Earth at the greatest ever launch speed for a man-made object. (One wonders what non-man-made object has or should be leaving our planet at a faster speed – a suggestion is made below.) So, there is New Horizons zipping off across the solar system, already crossing the orbits of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. All things considered, it should fly by Pluto on July 14, 2015. Folks, that is a long way and a long time going for a brief one-day visit in outer space. One wonders why the speed racer can’t stay about a bit longer, take in the scenery at a more leisurely pace, and send a few more picture postcards back with funny little sayings below the photos of the sights.

When our Achilles-fast probe was launched, Pluto was classified as a planet. “No longer shall it be,” said the International Astronomical Union in 2006. “Pluto is a dog, and such it shall be – forever and a day, so we say.” And, with that, the IAU demoted poor, kind, persevering and robber-catching Pluto to a dwarf planet. The effrontery and canine-ill-disposed guile. How could they? Have they never read and rode with Mickey and Donald on an adventure with Pluto in pursuit of the crooks. To appreciate the system-wide concern the demotion has engendered, see the We-Love-You-Pluto-The-Planet blog post of September 13, 2012.

To his credit, Alan Stern has said, “No.” He is on record that New Horizons is off and flying to the ninth planet, to Pluto, and it is a planet. Pluto is not and will not be treated as an object of diminished status, despite the popular abuse of some scientists, whatever their individual and mad pursuits may be. (One might wonder if those more outspoken Pluto-demoters may not be the non-man-made objects that should be leaving our sphere at an even faster speed – Bon Voyage, we say, and off you go.)

New Horizons is the fastest and fleetest, and it will be the farthest reaching and seeing. With its own eyes and those of its scientists, the mission will recognize and establish Pluto for what is and has always been – the proven and peer companion of the other eight planets. To us, on this the third blue planet from our sun, Pluto is a dear friend who has never failed to encourage with his simple deeds and humble demeanor. We stand to the night skies, fists raised in solidarity, and state our belief that no matter how small and distant you may be, it is the heart that matters most. You, little Pluto have that, and you have ours.

Thank you, Dr. Alan Stern, for standing firm and holding your ground.

We are confident that Pluto will hold his – he always has.

Onward, we say to New Horizons – the sky is yours.

See you and the photographs in 2015.

A picture is worth a 1,000 words.

Won’t you agree?

Grandpa Jim