Jim writes:

> "In the public limelight, Pluto has recently been the subject of a custody
>  battle between those who say it should be counted among the Kuiper Belt
>  objects - a ring of icy rocks beyond the orbit of Neptune that failed to
>  coalesce into a larger planet - and those who attack any efforts to
diminish
>  Pluto's status as the ninth planet. That debate boils down to what is a
>  planet and what is not, a seemingly straightforward concept with no precise
>  definition."

Pluto has always been very close to hearts and minds of the people of Las
Cruces, where I live, simply because Clyde Tombaugh lived here for almost all
of his life. In fact, he was a professor of mine for perhaps five classes,
with me taking every class he taught.

And for those who happen to be in the neighborhood (note to Jim: you're going
to have to work fast to come up with a reason to be here), there's going to
be a talk given on the "Pluto Express/New Horizons" mission this coming
Monday night:

=======================================

At http://kiernan.nmsu.edu/newsphoto/  there is a jpeg file: stern_alan.jpg
announcing a public lecture by Alan Stern on Monday Feb 4 at 7 p.M. in the
Corbett Center Auditorium at NMSU.

Feb 4 is the anniversary of Clyde Tombaugh's birthday and Alan has been a
long time fan of Clyde.

Alan's two great quests in life have been to become an astronaut (which
he almost made) and to take a spacecraft to Pluto.  He is Principal
Investigator on NASA's New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission.  If this
mission is fully funded, this small spacecraft will be launched on 2006,
fly by Jupiter in 2007 and on to Pluto.  It will flyby Pluto and Charon
between 2016 and 2018 and then on by at least one Kuiper Belt Object.  It
is equipped with a visible camera and UV and IR detectors.

Reta Beebe
Department of Astronomy
New Mexico State University
P.O. Box 30001/ MS 4500
Las Cruces, NM 88003

Tel 505-646-1938
FAX 505-646-1602

========================================

The *if funded* is a big part of this story. In two or three years, Jupiter
will move out of position so that a low-cost, gravity-assisted slingshot
mission to Pluto won't again be possible for quite some time.

Wirt Atmar

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