Not long after puny Pluto was stripped of its planethood, Janis Robinson started selling $25 ”Pluto is a planet” T-shirts on the internet.
Robinson, who said she ”rolled her eyes” after Pluto got the boot, hopes her buyers will send a message that kicking out the far-out rock is downright goofy.
”I’m always going to think of Pluto as a planet,” said the 45-year-old semi-retiree from San Jose, who insists she’s not peddling shirts on Craigslist.com for the money. ”People who buy this can make a statement that we still believe in Pluto.”
Robinson is hardly alone. Scores of web-savvy sellers hoping to support -and cash in — on Pluto’s demotion to a ”dwarf planet” bombarded the internet hawking Pluto memorabilia worthy of a presidential candidate, from T-shirts and mugs to bumper stickers and mouse pads.
The International Astronomical Union shook up the solar system on Thursday when it declared that Pluto was no longer part of the cosmic club — the first time the solar system was altered since Pluto was spotted in 1930.
Under new guidelines, Pluto was downgraded to a ”dwarf planet,” a new category that also includes the asteroid Ceres, the newly-discovered object 2003 UB313, and possibly dozens of others.
On Cafepress.com, a San Francisco-area internet company that prints T-shirts and other merchandise, an explosion of Pluto inventory popped up within 24 hours of the news. By Friday morning, the site featured 200 designs on more than 1 500 products.
Many items and slogans fretted Pluto’s demise and pined for the return of the obsolete nine-planet solar system. T-shirts screamed ”Save Pluto” and ”Stop Planetary Discrimination” while bumper stickers rallied ”Pluto 2006: Running as an Independent Candidate” and ”Vote for Pluto.”
Others were more wistful. ”Pluto, we hardly knew ye … 1930-2006” was available in adult and kid’s apparel as well as caps and bags.
Los Angeles-based Web programmer Chris Spurgeon took 15 minutes to design a bumper sticker on the site featuring a Hubble Space Telescope image and the slogan ”Honk if Pluto is still a planet.”
”I’m not burning with anger about the Pluto decision, but it has touched a nerve with a lot of people,” said Spurgeon (51) whose own car is plastered with bumper stickers.
On Friday morning, Spurgeon had received 100 orders for his bumper stickers, which cost $4 each. He plans to donate the money to the Planetary Society, a space advocacy group.
Cafepress.com spokesperson Marc Cowlin said the spike in Pluto-related products probably reflects people’s dismay. He said the Pluto items are ”hot,” but it’s too early to tell how well they will sell.
”Pluto is a planet we’ve known all our lives and suddenly it’s not. People are taken by surprise,” Cowlin said.
Jennifer Vaughn of the Planetary Society was unfazed to see the surge in Pluto merchandise given the sentimental attachment to the former ninth rock from the sun.
”The public has certainly supported Pluto as a planet,” Vaughn said. ”They see it as a bit of a cultural loss.”
In 1999, when Pluto’s planethood was threatened, a barrage of letters from schoolchildren worldwide prompted the professional astronomers’ group to issue a rare public statement affirming Pluto’s status. It’s too early to know how the latest rally around Pluto will affect its demotion, if at all.
Michael Burstein, who heads the Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet, a grassroots group formed earlier this year, said he was encouraged by the ruckus.
”If someone is creating ‘Save Pluto’ T-shirts, more power to them. No one has a monopoly on Pluto,” he said. – Sapa-AP