By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

Local residents are encouraged to celebrate July’s historic visit to Pluto, and its local discoverer.

Clyde Tombaugh, a Streator native, discovered the planet in 1930 and now that the New Horizons vehicle reached Pluto and sent photographs back to earth, the vehicle also carried a small amount of Tombaugh’s ashes to the planet.

Pluto was lost its formal recognition as a planet in 2006, but with State Representative Frank Mautino’s introduction of House Resolution 225, people are hoping to reinstate Pluto’s status as a planet.