Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer.
Tombaugh is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, but also discovered many asteroids, and called for serious scientific research of unidentified flying objects.
Tombaugh was born in Streator, LaSalle County, Illinois.
After his family moved to Burdett, Kansas, Tombaugh built his first telescope and sent drawings of his observations of Jup...
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Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer.
Tombaugh is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, but also discovered many asteroids, and called for serious scientific research of unidentified flying objects.
Tombaugh was born in Streator, LaSalle County, Illinois.
After his family moved to Burdett, Kansas, Tombaugh built his first telescope and sent drawings of his observations of Jupiter and Mars to the Lowell Observatory. These resulted in a job offer. Tombaugh was employed at the Lowell Observatory from 1929 to 1945.
Following his discovery of Pluto, Tombaugh earned astronomy degrees from the University of Kansas and Northern Arizona University. He worked at the White Sands Missile Range in the early 1950s, and taught astronomy at New Mexico State University from 1955 until his retirement in 1973. He died in Las Cruces, New Mexico, 1997 and was survived by his wife Patricia, daughter Annette and son Alden, a retired...
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