Arizona Representative Justin Wilmeth has proposed a bill to designate Pluto as the state’s official planet, highlighting the state’s significant contributions to astronomy. The initiative aims to honor the discovery of the dwarf planet at Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory in 1930, a moment that brought national attention to Arizona during the Great Depression. The observatory remains a point of pride, with visitors able to use the same telescope Clyde W. Tombaugh employed to spot Pluto. Wilmeth’s proposal is part of a broader tradition of naming official state symbols, with the recent example of copper being declared the state metal in 2015. The fate of the bill, HB 2477, is still uncertain, but it has sparked a mix of news coverage, debate, and humor on social media platforms.
Read more at Arizona Republic…
