PLUTO DISCOVERED (1930)
Categories: Anniversary, Science & Math & Environment, Space & The Outdoors
Location: United States
Type of Event: Daily Event
Updated: May 06, 2024
Location: United States
Type of Event: Daily Event
Updated: May 06, 2024
About the Discovery of Pluto
Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930. The search for it was inspired by Percival Lowell, a man ridiculed for his belief in Martians. The discovery is explained by astronomer and author Ken Croswell in an interview with EarthSky.
“In 1929, Lowell Observatory hired a young man from Kansas, by the name of Clyde Tombaugh. And he implemented a search for Pluto. Tombaugh was using a telescope that took photographic plates of the sky. During the day, he would examine those photographic plates for a moving object. The word ‘planet’ actually means ‘wanderer,’ something that moves night-to-night in the way that stars don’t.
“On February 18, 1930, a little after 4 p.m. Mountain Time. He saw Pluto for the very first time. And his first words to himself were, ‘That’s it!’
“The discovery of Pluto was inspired by Percival Lowell, and is a testimony to the hard work that Clyde Tombaugh put into searching millions of stars to find this tiny, faint object in space.”
Excerpt from How was Pluto discovered? by EarthSky Magazine. Read the full article at: http://earthsky.org/space/how-was-Pluto-discovered
“In 1929, Lowell Observatory hired a young man from Kansas, by the name of Clyde Tombaugh. And he implemented a search for Pluto. Tombaugh was using a telescope that took photographic plates of the sky. During the day, he would examine those photographic plates for a moving object. The word ‘planet’ actually means ‘wanderer,’ something that moves night-to-night in the way that stars don’t.
“On February 18, 1930, a little after 4 p.m. Mountain Time. He saw Pluto for the very first time. And his first words to himself were, ‘That’s it!’
“The discovery of Pluto was inspired by Percival Lowell, and is a testimony to the hard work that Clyde Tombaugh put into searching millions of stars to find this tiny, faint object in space.”
Excerpt from How was Pluto discovered? by EarthSky Magazine. Read the full article at: http://earthsky.org/space/how-was-Pluto-discovered
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