Tombaugh, Clyde William

Tombaugh, << TOM baw, >> Clyde William

(1906-1997), was an American astronomer. He discovered Pluto, a dwarf planet that orbits far from the sun, in 1930 while he was examining some photographic plates with a blink microscope at the Lowell Observatory. Percival Lowell had predicted the general location of Pluto 15 years earlier. Tombaugh became engaged in ballistics research at White Sands (New Mexico) Missile Range in 1946. He was born in Streator, Illinois.