Planet Pluto at 89: Biased IAU Documents Reveal Depth of Denial

February 18, 2019, marked the 89th anniversary of Pluto’s amazing discovery by 24-year-old Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, on February 18, 1930.

With this year’s New Year’s flyby of Kuiper Belt Object Ultima Thule, Tombaugh, whose ashes are onboard the New Horizons spacecraft, became the only person to have ever journeyed four billion miles from Earth, on a trajectory to eventually leave the solar system.

Back on Earth, the diminutive but fascinating planet he discovered almost nine decades ago continues to fascinate people of all ages, including children who, though born after the ridiculous IAU vote, continue to view Pluto as a planet.

Unfortunately, the IAU has made no attempt to rectify its 2006 blunder. At its 30th General Assembly (GA) in August 2018, the first GA held since all of New Horizons’ data on the Pluto system was returned in late 2016, the IAU made no effort to revise its definition based on the new data or update it to include exoplanets.

Incredibly, some materials distributed at this year’s IAU GA regarding the New Horizons Pluto flyby contain erroneous or misleading information. Most prominently, an image of Pluto and Charon that is part of the IAU’s 100th Anniversary Exhibition, which the group plans to…