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Clyde W. Tombaugh passed away January 17,
1997 in Las Cruces, 18 days short of his 91st birthday.
The discovery of Pluto, he was also considered the father of the
astronomy research program at New Mexico State University and an
inspiration to an entire generation of astronomers. His wife Patsy,
his son Alden, his daughter Annette, five grandchildren, and eight
great-grandchildren survive him.
Tombaugh was born February 4, 1906 in
Streator, Illinois, but grew up on a farm near Burdett, Kansas. His
interest in astronomy came from his father or uncle, depending on
sources. When his 2 ¼-inch Sears Roebuck telescope became too
ineffective, he grounded mirrors and made his own 9-inch telescope.
With this telescope, he drew pictures of Jupiter and Mars. In 1928,
he sent those pictures to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff,
Arizona. He impressed the staff so much that they offered him a job
as a junior astronomer. His job was to help in the search for
Percival Lowell's "Planet X" by using the
Observatory's new 13-inch f/5 photographic camera.
On the nights of January 23rd and
29th, pictures were taken of the region of Delta
Geminorum. On February 19th, using a Zeiss blink
comparator, Tombaugh noticed a slight shift in the position of one
of a thousand points of lights. This was a sign that a planet could
be among those stars. After confirming this with several more
observations, Tombaugh announced the new planet to the world on
March 13, 1930. He was only 24 years old and had fulfilled the dream
of Percival Lowell, the founder of the Lowell Observatory.
Tombaugh continued to work at the Lowell
Observatory for another 13 years. During this time, he photographed
approximately 65% of the sky. Although he never discovered any more
planets, he did discover five (or six, depending on source) star
clusters, one (or two, depending on source) comets, hundreds of
asteroids, numerous clusters of galaxies including a supercluster
that stretches from Andromeda to Perseus, and a nova. Not too
shabby.
Other accomplishments he achieved include:
determining the vortex nature of Jupiter's Great Red Spot,
confirming the rotation period of Mercury on its axis, and
developing a new technique to search for small Earth satellites.
And in his free time, Tombaugh even found
time to get a college education! Dr. Tombaugh earned degrees
from the University of Kansas (both a bachelor's degree and
master's degree) and taught at Northern Arizona University
(where he also got a degree) and the University of California at Los
Angeles. In 1955, Tombaugh began the Planetary Group, an astronomy
research group at New Mexico State University. He was involved in
designing the University's Tortugas Mountain Observatory. The
Tortugas Mountain Observatory first began photographing images with
its 24-inch telescope in 1967 and continues to provide its services
to NASA today. In 1970, Tombaugh helped the University start a
separate astronomy department. Today, the astronomy department is a
member of the Astrophysical Research Consortium, which operates the
Apache Point Observatory. Before his death, Tombaugh and his wife
set up a permanent endowment at New Mexico State University. The
University's Tombaugh Scholars Fund is a special fund that
helps attract astronomers to the school for post-doctoral research.
Although he retired, Tombaugh never stopped
watching the sky. When the Smithsonian Institute asked him if he
would be willing to donate the 9-inch telescope he made in 1928,
Tombaugh's reply was "I told them I was still using
it."
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