Opinion: Space cadets

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Berkeley, which has long considered itself a very important place, declared itself a “nuclear-free zone” two decades ago. No matter that the city was taking on a federal issue that it had no power to control. The municipal label might have been meaningless, but it celebrated Berkeley’s own brand of solipsistic chutzpah.

Now New Mexico has left Berkeley in the nuclear-free dust by declaring state powers over the solar system. When Pluto passes over New Mexico, the state legislature decided earlier this month, it will have full planet status.

For those who missed Pluto’s demotion last year, scientists decided to shrink the solar system down to eight planets because there are other little round things circling the sun that are just as big. Now Pluto is one of a handful of “dwarf planets” in the solar system.

It’s all about hometown pride. Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, was a New Mexico resident who had no formal astronomy training, but still built his own telescopes and found—well, a little round thing out there beyond Neptune.

A personal note on Tombaugh. Back when my now-23-year-old daughter was in second grade, she called Tombaugh for a report she was doing on Pluto. (People were listed in those days.) He was uncommonly kind about answering the sorts of questions a 7-year-old thinks up. (“How’s your cat?” “Uh...it died.” Flood of tears.) When he died seven years later, she cried again.

In an age that celebrates advanced degrees over just plain smarts, we don’t have many Tombaughs, and it’s honestly sad to see his accomplishment diminished in any way. But he was a scientist above all, who knew, as New Mexico’s lawmakers apparently don’t, that science is about what’s true, not about what we wish were true.

A small portion of Tombaugh’s ashes are carried on the New Horizons spacecraft mission to Pluto. He wouldn’t mind that they were speeding through space toward a dwarf planet discovered by a genius.