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Thursday, March 6. 1980
University Daily Kansan
Anniversary of Pluto's discovery to be observed
By DON MUNDAY Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Twenty-four-year-old Clyde Tombaugh
was born a party photographer
plate on the cover of *The
Athens* and like all the other plates he'd examined
during the previous 10 months, this pair was
between 39 and 45 years old.
This particular pair, however, was different.
On one of the plates, a tiny speck of light was to the left of a certain star. On the other plate, the speck was on the right of the star. Clearly, it had moved.
THAT TINY SPACE of light turned out to be the ninth planet of the solar system, Pitom. Tombauma's discovery brought him to the University of Kansas for a scholarship to the University of Kansas.
Next week, Tombaugh will return to the place of the discovery, the Lowell Observatory year Flagshaft, Arzi, to celebrate the discovery of the announcement of Pluto's discovery.
Now a professor emeritus at New Mexico State University at La Cruces, in 1930 Tonnaugh was an astronomy buff from the little western Kansas town of Bardett.
Tornbaugh had become involved in the planet search in 1929, after he had sent some sketches he'd made of Mars and Jupiter to
the Lowell staff. They were so impressed by the detail of his drawings, all done while he was using a home-made telescope, that they invited him to work at the observatory.
THE SEARCH for the ninth planet had been going on since the astronomer Percival Lowel had built his observatory around the moon that had the inexplicable motion of the planet Uranus must have been caused by the orbit of Neptune.
When the Lowell staff tomhaugh, they had a full-time job in mind for him—the search for that undiscovered planet. In fact, when it was constructed especially for the search.
"It it was until I got there that they told me what they wanted." Tombaugh said in a recent telephone interview. "It was quite a surprise."
For nearly a year, Tornbaugh spent his night taking picture of the sky in an abandoned house, examining the photographic plates. His goal was to find a planet, probably extremely distant.
The search was especially slow because each pair of photographic plates, which were of the same area of the sky but taken
THE MICROSCOPE PROJECTED THE plates alternately, so that the fixed background dart clear objects, such as dinosaur orsters or planets, would seem to have moved during the time between exposures. The plates are designed to jump "from one position to another."
"I saw it move instantly," Tombaugh said. "It was much slower than an asteroid, and I exclaimed to myself, 'That's it.' It was a very exciting thing."
On Feb. 18, 1930, Tombaugh was blinking two plates which had been exposed in January. It on was these plates that the elusive "Plant X" had been captured.
"It was a grim job," he said. "So many times where the results were negative, I felt like I was poised-chaunch. But I decided to learn even if to learn易 yes or no about the planet."
WITH A POUNDING HEART, Tornbaugh tackled the discovery by examining other planetary bodies in a smaller telescope. The speech was faint, but it was there—and most importantly, it had been delivered by a woman.
"They were electrified to have found it, because they'd worked on it since 1905. But
PHIL THOMPSON/Kansan Staff
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We are looking into expanding and improving in our collections. Midnight series, Classical Series, Genre series, Directed series.
We need creative minds and people power to promote these programs and develop new ideas.
Just like the big shows downtown, only better because we offer so much more for a lot less.
The Fine Arts area of SUA acts to supplement the "arts activities" of the University. People with ideas and energy are needed for raking workshops, performances and art displays in the arts areas ... literature, art, music, and dance.
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Outdoor recreation encompasses the activities of hiking, swimming, biking, golfing, dining Club as well as many special events. We
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Student Union Activities is now taking applications for committee membership. You can be a part of the exciting plans of SUA by sharing your time, talents, and ideas in these areas...
We are best known to students for our exciting large scale concerts, but we also bring to KU a lot of smaller acts that include jazz groups and local bands. One of our favorites is the *Latin Jazz* ensemble, which includes seven plays and lasts as long six hours.
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ideas, issues, lectures, discussions and debates are all a part of SUA Forums. The Forum委员会 brings rationalized recognition to the University for stimulating and thought provoking programs. We also keep in touch with people in and around the local community who have something to say in a University audience.
After the discovery came the inevitable question what is call the new planet. An 11-year-old suggested "Pluto," the name of the dwarf planet, a particularly fitting title for such a lifesize planet on the fringes of the solar system, where the temperature forever must hover above 500°C.
It was on March 13, 1930, the 75th anniversary of Percival Lowell's birth and the
It soon became evident to astronomers, however, that the little planet did not have the mass to be the cause of all the deviations in Iris's orbital motion.
HE FOUND A COMET, hundreds of miles away from our planet. It clusters—but no more plants. He finally concluded that there could not have been any large planets within range of his.
We need innovative people like you to help us with our people programs.
Thus, throughout his college years and into the early 1940s, Tombaugh worked at Lowell searching for a 10th planet.
SLSA Public Relations is responsible for promoting the image and activities of our programming board to the students and the University community. Anyone interested in applying to SLSA should contact:
When he concluded his 14 years of planet-hunting, he worked with the army to develop a tracking telescope capable of following rockets in flight. He then worked on various other space-related projects and in 1861 built a telescope astronomy and geology at New Mexico State.
date of Uranus' discovery in 1781, that the observatory announced to a startled world that the ninth planet had been found.
Fame and a KU scholarship came quickly.
"It was real pandemonium," Tombaugh said. He said his parents were "just about bowled over" when they read about it in the newspaper.
This coming year's activities includes tail and summer orientation and the Madrigal Dinner.
"AFTER THE DISCOVERY I was awarded the first Edwin Emerson Slosson 4-year scholarship. That was in 1831, but the planetary search is in such a critical
We need your help in these programs. Experience is not a necessity, however interest is required. Deadline for sign up is March 21. For more information stop by the SUA office in the Kansas Union or call 864-3477.
738 MASS.
6:30-5:00 M-5
Thure till 8:30 p.m.
Get involved—SUA is for everyone!
At KU he studied astronomy and geology. In 1938 he returned to get a master's degree. It was also at KU that he met his wife, Patricia Edison, daughter of former KU football coach Oliver Edson. In 1964 Tom Distinguished Service Award.
QUICK STOP
PHOTO SHOP
stage that I entered as a freshman in the fall of 1932, getting my bachelor's degree in 1936."
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But perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the youth from Burdett would be the one to find Pluto.
Now, 59 years after the initial commotion, through it is once again a celebration. A British composer will be presenting a documentary on his work, and astronomers from all over the world will meet at the concert.
After all, when he had graduated from Burdett High School in 1928, his sister had written a rather remarkable prophecy about him in his yearbook.
"He will discover a new system," she wrote.
Maybe it wasn't a whole new system—but he expanded by one planet the system already in existence.
Foreign & Domestic Parts
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