science · 17 January 1997 · 27 years ago
death
Died 17 Jan 1997 at age 90 (born 4 Feb 1906).
Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer who discovered Pluto, then known as a planet. He was 24 years old, working at Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, when he located it on 13 Mar 1930. He was comparing a photographic plate taken on 23 Jan 1930, with another made a few days later, and saw a star-like speck that changed position between them. Thus ended a decades-long systematic search instigated by the predictions of other astronomers. Tombaugh also discovered several clusters of stars and galaxies, studied the apparent distribution of extragalactic nebulae, and made observations of the surfaces of Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Moon. Born of poor farmers, his first telescope was made of parts from worn-out farming equipment. Pluto was the only planet discovered in the 20th century, and the only one found by an American.
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