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mikeemmert
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Yahoo! News reports that a number of astronomers have signed a petition to restore Pluto's planetary status:<br /><br />"<font color="yellow">PARIS (AFP) - Only a week after Pluto was stripped of its status as a full-fledged planet of the Solar System, rebel astronomers have launched a campaign to have it restored in pomp and glory.<br /> <br />A petition already signed by more than 300 professional researchers is attacking the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decision to expel Pluto from the Solar System's A-list and doom it to the status of "dwarf planet".<br /><br />"We as planetary scientists and astronomers do not agree with the IAU's definition of a planet, nor will we use it. A better definition is needed," says the protest, placed on the Web at<br /><br />http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest<br /><br />The petition organiser, Mark Sykes, who is director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, said the IAU definition of a planet "does not meet fundamental scientific standards and should be set aside."<br /><br />"A more open process, involving a broader cross-section of the community engaged in planetary studies of our own Solar System and others should be undertaken," Sykes said.<br /><br />The British magazine New Scientist said on its website Friday that the rebels intend to stage a conference next year to fix the definition of a planet. As many as 1,000 astronomers will attend, they hope.<br /><br />A co-sponsor of the petition is Alan Stern, executive director of the Center for Space Exploration Policy Research at the US Southwest Research Institute.<br /><br />Stern heads NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. Its spacecraft -- which also bears some of the ashes of US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930 -- blasted off in January this year, m</font>