Clyde Thombaugh's Biography

Clyde Thombaugh Site

Clyde Thombaugh (1906-1997) is well in the astronomer hall of fame. He was the final discoverer of planet pluto after many years of research. When he was 22 he had a home-made 9 inch reflector that he used to makde drawings of Saturn and Jupiter from. After sending his pictures to Lowell Observatory for critique, he was immediately offered a position as astronomical photographer. Later, his research gained him another position as researcher, and his goal was to find the infamous Planet X, which would later be Pluto. Finally, on March 12, 1930, Pluto was discovered. Afterwards, Clyde continued to discover things. He discovered a comet, five open clusters, globular cluster, and a supercluster of galaxes stretching from Andromeda to Perseus. Clyde took leave for war, and in 1945 was dismissed from Lowell and in 1946 began working at White Sands Proving Grounds. He worked on fledgling space programs. Then, he founded the astronomy program for New Mexico State University after retiring in 1973.