Clyde Tombaugh was an unassuming farm boy of the early 20th century. He had not attended college and worked with his family. Clyde, however, was fascinated by the night sky. In 1926, he built a few telescopes with mirrors he ground himself. He worked tirelessly on drawings of Jupiter and Mars. When completed in 1929, he sent these drawings to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. Tombaugh was then offered a job.
Clyde went to college while working for Lowell and received both a bachelors and masters degree in astronomy. What he is most famous for occurred in 1930. Tombaugh was assigned the duty of searching for a "trans-Neptunian" planet; the so called, "Planet X." Tombaugh took pictures of the same section of sky night after night and noticed one body that seemed to move while the others (stars) were stationary. He also determined the light was beyond Neptune. Tombaugh had discovered Planet X.
What to call the new planet? Planet X was not very interesting. There were many suggestions, but the winning entry came from a 11 year old girl. Her suggestion was Pluto. The astronomers thought Pluto was fitting as it was the name of the Roman God of the Underworld who could make himself invisible. The owner of the Lowell Observatory, Percival Lowell, liked the name as PL were his initials. On May 1, 1930, Pluto was dubbed the 9th planet.
Note for my son, Ryter: On August 24, 2006, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet or as Ryter says, "Pluto got kicked out of the galaxy." Even at the age of 3, he has decided that it is his mission in life to allow Pluto back in.
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