Pluto was demoted from "planet" to "dwarf planet" in 2006, but in New Mexico, Pluto hasn't lost its star quality. In 2007, the state legislature voted to continue recognizing Pluto as a planet whenever it passes overhead through New Mexico's night skies. Part of the reasoning was that the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, was a longtime resident of Las Cruces, where he taught at New Mexico State University from 1955 to 1973. Pluto was downgraded by the International Astronomical Union when it was determined that, although Pluto orbits the Sun and is "massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity," it does not have enough gravitational pull to be considered a planet.
Pluto and Clyde:
- Clyde Tombaugh died in Las Cruces in 1997. A portion of his ashes were placed in a container onboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. New Horizons completed its flyby of Pluto in 2015.
- Since its discovery in 1930, Pluto has only completed about one-third of an orbit around the Sun.
- Pluto's s surface temperature is approximately -375 degrees F (-226 C).