PLUTOPALOOZA!

By S. Derrickson Moore >> dmoore@lcsun-news.com >> @DerricksonMoore on Twitter

LAS CRUCES >> It’s almost Plutopalooza prime time. On Tuesday, nearly a decade after the New Horizons probe was launched with Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes on board, the spacecraft will make its closest approach to Pluto.

It’s been a long wait for fans of the dwarf planet and the man who discovered Pluto on Feb. 18, 1930.

And the excitement is mounting all over planet Earth, especially in Las Cruces, the place Tombaugh called home for most of his long life, until his death in Mesilla Park on Jan. 17, 1997. His fans are celebrating with two months of special events that include talks, star parties, workshops, art and science projects, exhibits and a big Plutopalooza party on July 25.

A celebration is also underway in the Illinois town where Tombaugh was born on Feb. 4, 1906.

“This is the year of Pluto in Streator, Illinois. We’re having a lot of fun,” reports Ed Brozak, a Streator councilman and chief Pluto booster.

“We actually got ahold of two of Clyde’s telescopes and we’re looking at stars. We’ve had some talks, but all of the real (New Horizons) scientists are really busy around this time and it’s hard to get a lot of them involved,” Brozak said.

But their hero is being honored with events that include a Pluto Polka Party and Big Bang Brewfest. The citizenry is showing up wearing buttons that say “PLUTO: WE BELIEVE.” And the town website, streator.org, features a dramatic poster with the New Horizons probe, Pluto and one of its moons and the message: “HE ARRIVES. JULY 2015.”

There’s also a commemorative Clyde postcard, and Brozak said the town council has renamed a local street “Pluto Pathway.”

“The street signs aren’t up yet, but we’ve passed an ordinance,” Brozak said.

It’s also been a busy couple of months for Las Cruces residents Annette and Alden Tombaugh, the children of Clyde and Patricia Edson Tombaugh.

Their mom got to watch the New Horizons launch in January 2003. She died in 2012 at the age of 99.

“We were all hoping she’d make it for the Pluto flyby, but we knew it was a stretch,” said Alden Tombaugh, who reports that many family members, including grandchildren, great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews, are following the event with interest.

“We’re thrilled about it. We’re very much looking forward to it. We’re doing a lot of press stuff and we’ve been in touch with a whole group that includes the upper crust of astrophysicists whose accomplishments are astounding and they’re all working together on this. (The New Horizons mission) is quite an accomplishment. Dad would have been totally thrilled with this adventure and the fact that his ashes are on board to honor him,” said Alden, who, with his sister, recently returned from ceremonies honoring their father at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, site of their father’s discovery of Pluto.

“We were there to dedicate dad’s apartment and for a fund-raising gala. We had a great time, meeting with old friends, people we played with as children. There is great anticipation for the flyby,” said Annette Tombaugh, who is currently consulting on several related projects and doing media interviews.

“There are three TV shows in the works, a PBS “NOVA” show on Pluto, a NASA Show and a Discovery Channel show,” she said.

According to a NASA website, National Geographic Channel and Japan’s NHK are also planning in-depth programming and by late June, more than 200 members of the press had registered to cover the flyby at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., which designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

“Things are pretty fast and furious now. The flyby will be 7:40 a.m. EST on July 14 and the downloads will start that evening. It will be like flying an airplane over Las Cruces and being able to pick out the Las Cruces Sun-News building. We should get some really fine details of Charon and Pluto’s other four moons,” Annette Tombaugh said.

She is not dwelling on speculation that the probe could provide information that might upgrade Pluto to full planetary status again.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen and I don’t want to really speculate. Pluto has been classified as a dwarf planet, correctly, I think. That’s what it is, similar to other Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO), but also similar to non-KBOs. Pluto has a double planet system with its largest moon, the first we have found in our solar system,” Annette said.

There has been a bittersweet quality to the festivities for the Tombaughs.

“My parents would have been so excited. It’s been almost like mourning mom and dad all over again,” Annette said, as attention has focused on her parents’ long careers, civic contributions and her father’s remarkable discovery.

And remarkable it was and continues to be, said Kim Hanson, education curator at the Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science, where she has researched Tombaugh’s life for permanent and rotating exhibits and annual Tombaugh Day celebrations.

“He found Pluto in a place where it shouldn’t have been, acting in ways it shouldn’t have been acting, with equipment much worse than he should have needed to find it,” said Hanson, who feels Tombaugh’s accomplishment is in no way diminished by a reclassification to dwarf planet status more than 75 years after its discovery.

“Pluto doesn’t care what we call it. It will go on being Pluto,” Hanson said.

Annette recalled being on site with her mother for the Jan. 16, 2006, New Horizons launch on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

“Just being next to something so powerful and so beautiful was wonderful. And this is not the end of the mission. It’s really just the beginning. This will help us understand the infinite variety of the members of the universe. I love that variety,” Annette Tombaugh said.

As part of Las Cruces Plutopalooza, a series of events celebrating the New Horizons’ flyby of Pluto, city museums are hosting several events. Dave Dooling, New Mexico Museum of Space History education director, will present some early highlights of the mission at “New Horizons Has Arrived!” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Las Cruces Museum of Nature and Science, 411 N. Main St. Family Science Saturday programs will focus on rocketry at 10 a.m. Saturday and July 25 at the Branigan Cultural Center, 501 N. Main St. The Las Cruces Railroad Museum, 351 N. Mesilla St., will host a Star Party with the New Mexico State University Astronomy Department from 9 to 11 p.m. Saturday. The Museum of Nature and Science will host “Space Weather Action News,” a workshop for kids in grades three to five that will include a chance to learn about the Sun and its effect on the solar system while assembling a space weather station to take home from 2 to 4 p.m. July 23.

“Beyond Pluto: The Clyde Tombaugh Story,” a collaborative exhibit with the NMSU Library, runs through July 25 at the Branigan Cultural Center.

“Plutopalooza: Night Under the Stars” from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. July 25 in the BCC courtyard, will feature a celebration of the New Horizons mission to Pluto with the latest images from the mission projected on a large screen, space-themed hands-on activities, a last chance to see the “Beyond Pluto” exhibit, dinner with Las Cruces’ local food trucks and a cash-only bar. The event is for ages 21 and up and ID is required.

All the Plutopalooza events are free. For more information, visit las-cruces.org/museums or call 575-522-3120. Follow the progress of the New Horizons mission to Pluto at pluto.jhuapl.edu. Watch a NASA documentary on the mission at youtu.be/EJxwWpaGoJs.

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at 575-541-5450.