Open Letter to the International Astronomical Union Regarding Pluto

Dear Professor Montmerle & Other Members of the Executive Committee:

I am an American artist/writer/attorney of partial French ancestry. My French ancestors were Huguenots. It is not lost on me that the de-planetification of Pluto occurred on August 24th, 2006, 434 years later on the same date as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. A day of infamy, twice over, as a friend noted sagely.

As a child growing up in the once-French city of Detroit, I used to fantasize about being the King of Pluto--once I learned about all the planets in the Solar System. I was probably in kindergarden, or the first grade at the latest.

My mother, as a little girl, had the assignment of writing an essay about one of the planets, and picked Pluto. Serendipity?

Pluto has captured the imagination of Mankind, and its summary dismissal from the family of planets is a great galactic injustice.

Do not tell me it is still a planet in the eyes of the IAU, either. Your organization violated its own protocols in Prague and voted to diss it on the last day of the 2006 General Assembly with only 424 members voting, creating a rift within the IAU itself--a rift that you have a duty to address in an appropriate and just manner.

In Rio, in 2009, with Alan Stern of NASA's New Horizons mission conspicuously absent, you ignored the pleas of millions and did not reopen the issue. That such a well-respected member of the IAU would boycott the Rio General Assembly is a testament to your dire need to reopen the question of Pluto. Other members are also upset at the way in which you acted without regard to proper process.

It is highly egregious that after the death of Clyde Tombaugh, but with his widow still alive, you took away such a great accomplishment with one fell bureaucratic stroke.

Such an action will discourage future generations from a career in astronomy, seeing how easily one's discoveries can be disrespected and erased from History.

Voting should be allowed to all members, whether present or not. Also, anything that is voted on must be properly vetted, not furtively rushed through on the last day of a General Assembly, when most members have left, thinking nothing more of consequence will occur. Neither happened in the matter of Pluto. Shameful, backward behavior unbecoming of the scientific community.

I have seen Pluto from a large telescope in Cadillac, Michigan, have you ever seen it?

I personally petitioned President George W. Bush in July 2002 to support New Horizons when he could have cancelled the mission, like President Clinton did to the Pluto Express mission. I have done more for Pluto than the current Executive Committee of the IAU.

I was invited to a pre-launch party in Cocoa Beach by Alan Stern and saw Mrs. Tombaugh there, and saw the launch itself a few days later on a packed dock jutting into the Atlantic Ocean in Port Canaveral, Florida, taking a few photographs of the great and beautiful feat.

The American astronomer Mike Brown glibly calls himself the assassin of Pluto. I give him credit for co-discovering Eris, a dwarf planet he named after a teevy show called Xena in 2005. At first, he said Eris was a planet, and then he changed his mind. Now he has a book in which he brags about killing Pluto. I hope you do not endorse such immature behavior, and I am glad he is not a member of your esteemed organization. Should he ever apply, I hope you will deny his request. He is the Pete Rose of his profession, one might say.

Such disrespect for Clyde Tombaugh by the IAU and Mike Brown has no place in the world of planetary science. The IAU needs to review the matter of Pluto, and put it on the docket for the 2012 and/or the 2015 General Assemblies.

To allow this egregious vote to stand is an insult to true science. I hope you will heed my words. See you in Honolulu.

Truly,

Mike Wrathell, Esq. & Artist
Sterling Heights, MI
USA

PS: I have a lot of space-themed art on my art website, and was the subject of an award-winning documentary entitled "the king of pluto." I have already made art with images sent back to Earth from the New Horizons probe. I am listed on Wikipedia, as well. The chief curator of The Whitney Museum of American Art called my art "compelling."

PPS: I am sending a Cc to all Executive Committee members of the IAU, and you are all put on notice as to my thoughts and are invited to email me back with any comments you may wish to share with me.

http://ultra-renaissance.com

The Dark Side of The Moon

Well, Folks:

I am working on a new art project now using Moon grey stills of footage of the dark side of the Moon shot by Apollo 8's crew when Mankind, for the first time ever, saw that side.

I hope you enjoy the artwork. "Moon Frog" has what seems to be a frog with wings in the lower right. All the work is unaltered, but for color and saturation. Using computers to make art from real photos is cool, and I do not want to alter the true beauty of any side of the Moon by getting too "cutezy-ootzey."

Click on the link and behold.

Truly,

Mike.

http://ultra-renaissance.com/darkside.shtml