from NASA History Today we remember Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer and the discoverer of Pluto. Born on this day in 1906 near Streator, Illinois, Tombaugh lost all hope of a college education when a severe storm destroyed his family’s farm crops. He started building telescopes and grinding mirrors in his early 20s despite a lack of formal training and education. His perseverance and fascination with astronomy landed him a job at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. The staff at Lowell had been looking for an amateur astronomer to operate their new 13-inch telescope in search of the elusive Planet X and they had been impressed with Tombaugh’s illustrations of Jupiter and Mars. During his 16 years at the observatory, Tombaugh discovered comets, asteroids, and star clusters. On February 18, 1930, less than one year after having been hired, Tombaugh noticed that one of the bright points had moved in a pair of images taken a month before. After further study and inspection, Lowell Observatory concluded that Tombaugh had finally discovered the mysterious ninth planet, Pluto. Today, the International Astronomical Union classifies Pluto as a dwarf planet. NASA’s New Horizons mission, scheduled in 2015 to be the first probe to arrive at Pluto, carries some of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes. Learn more about tiny Pluto and its place in the solar system: nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/what-is-pluto-58_prt.htm
Posted on: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 22:26:30 +0000
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