The Man Who Discovered Pluto

Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930 while scanning the sky as a young, self-taught amateur. His find revealed the Kuiper Belt, a vast field of icy bodies orbiting far beyond Neptune.

After building his own telescopes as a teenager, Tombaugh sent his drawings to the Lowell Observatory, which immediately hired him. He spent countless nights blinking between thousands of photographic plates to spot the tiny moving dot that became Pluto. His dedication proved that the outer solar system was much more crowded than scientists ever imagined. Even today, a portion of his ashes travels aboard a spacecraft visiting the outer reaches of the system he unveiled.