UNIVERSE GUIDE

Register   Log In
Home
[+]  Aliens
[+]  Authors
[+]  Cartoon
Clubs
[+]  Fact
[+]  Films
Forum
Gallery
[+]  Games
[+]  Planets
[+]  Pioneers
Clyde Tombaugh
Edmund Halley, Sir
Helen Sharman
Johann Galle
Neil Armstrong
Nicolaus Copernicus
Valentina Tereshkova
William Herschel, Sir
Yuri Gagarin
Space Flight
[+]  Spacecraft
[+]  Television
[+]  Users/Questions
News Archive
Search Site
Related Link List
Unrelated Link List
About us/Disclaimer
Make a Comment

Related Links

No Links Found
 
Add a Link

Translate


Clyde Tombaugh

Personal Fact File

 
Birthdate Streator, Illinois, Feb 4,1906
Death Las Cruces, New Mexico, Jan 17,1997
Nationality American
Gender Male
Famous For Discovered Planet Pluto


History
American astronomer who is famous for discovering the planet Pluto. Since being discovered, it has been downgraded to a dwarf planet, a grey area in astronomy that is still being debated. At the time of its discovery, the Kuiper Belt had yet to be discovered with its large numbers of rocks.

After his birth, his family were to move to Burdett Kansas where his interest in astronomy began. After building his own telescope, he sent his observations to the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona. They were so impressed with what he had sent them, that they offered him a job there and naturally he accepted. He had discovered the planet after studying images that had been taken by the observatory of the night sky. The work was hard and painstaking involving comparing different images taken of the same sky at different times. If an object moved, he knew he had found the planet. After much work, he found what he was looking for on the 18th February 1930.

The planet was named Pluto after an international competition by a British schoolgirl on 1st May 1930. Pluto was the name of the Roman God of the Underworld who could render himself invisible.

Clyde was married to Patricia and had a two children, Annette and Alden. All three, he named asteroids after them e.g. 2839 Annette. The 1604 Tombaugh asteroid is named after him.

If you intend to vote or make a comment, please enter the security code. CODE

Make a comment

*Comments are the views of individuals, they may or may not be correct.
All comments are reviewed and accepted or rejected.
If you give an email address, you will be sent an email when someone makes a comment on this page.*

Name :
Email :
Comments :


Only name and Code is compulsory.