Clyde Tombaugh

Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer and telescope maker, best known for discovering Pluto in 1930. At the time, Pluto was called the ninth planet in our Solar System, and this stayed true for over seventy years.

Tombaugh was born in Illinois and grew up on farms in Kansas. He taught himself astronomy and even built his own telescopes using spare parts. His hard work paid off when he got a job at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. There, he not only found Pluto but also discovered many asteroids, star clusters, galaxies, and stars that change in brightness.

Later, Tombaugh became a professor at New Mexico State University. He led projects to study planets and space objects, helping us learn more about Mercury and Jupiter. Even after he retired in 1973, he kept building telescopes and encouraged others to keep looking at the sky, including studying mysterious things people saw that they couldn’t explain.

Early life

Clyde Tombaugh was born on February 4, 1906, in Streator, Illinois, to a family of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. He was the first of six children. His interest in astronomy began when he visited the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin at age 12. His uncle, an amateur astronomer, also sparked his passion by giving him astronomy books and using a small telescope.

Due to financial difficulties from poor weather and crop failures, Tombaugh’s family moved to a farm in Burdett, Kansas in 1922. He had to pause his education to help with the farm work but later graduated from high school in 1925. A hailstorm in 1928 damaged the family farm again, affecting his plans for college. Inspired by an article in Popular Astronomy, he decided to build his own telescope to observe Jupiter.

Astronomy career

Clyde Tombaugh built several telescopes himself using lenses and mirrors. He dug a special pit to test his telescope mirrors, which helped him get a job at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.

While working there, Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930. He used a special camera to take pictures of the sky and noticed a moving object that turned out to be Pluto. This discovery was very important because it showed there were other objects beyond Neptune in our solar system. Later, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet after other similar objects were found.

Tombaugh continued to search for more objects in space and discovered many asteroids and other celestial bodies. He also made interesting observations of unusual lights in the sky, though he did not believe they were from outer space.

Other ventures

During World War II, Clyde Tombaugh taught navigation to naval personnel at Northern Arizona University. After the war, he worked at White Sands Missile Range and later taught astronomy at New Mexico State University until he retired in 1973. For his achievements, he was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1980 and received the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award in 1991.

Later life

As time passed, looking at the stars with the naked eye became less common in astronomy. By 1965, an expert named Robert S. Richardson said Tombaugh was one of the two best observers alive, as skilled as famous astronomers Percival Lowell and Giovanni Schiaparelli. In 1980, Tombaugh worked with Patrick Moore to write a book called Out of the Darkness: The Planet Pluto.

In 1992, a scientist from JPL named Robert Staehle called Tombaugh and asked to visit Pluto. Tombaugh welcomed him, joking that he would need a long, cold trip! This conversation helped start the New Horizons mission, which finally reached Pluto in 2015. A special area on Pluto called the "Heart of Pluto" was named Tombaugh Regio in his honor.

Personal life

Clyde Tombaugh had five siblings. Through the daughter of his youngest brother, Robert, he is the great-uncle of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw. He married Patricia Edson in 1934, and they had two children named Annette and Alden.

Tombaugh was an active Unitarian Universalist, and he and his wife helped found the Unitarian Universalist Church of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Death

Clyde Tombaugh passed away on January 17, 1997, in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the age of 90. A small part of his ashes was sent into space on the New Horizons spacecraft, with a note remembering him as the discoverer of Pluto. He is remembered by his wife, Patricia, and their two children, Annette and Alden.

In popular culture

Clyde Tombaugh became famous for discovering Pluto, and this led to him appearing on a game show called I've Got A Secret in 1956. A song by the artist Sufjan Stevens named The Avalanche/w/1) includes a track called "For Clyde Tombaugh." In the TV show Fargo, there is an episode that visits a memorial where Tombaugh grew up. In a science fiction book by Robert Heinlein titled Have Space Suit – Will Travel, there is a base on the Moon named Tombaugh Station, honoring his work.