Clyde Tombaugh The Discoverer Of Pluto example essay topic

"To the Stars Through Difficulties" is the state motto of Kansas, the place where Clyde Tombaugh the discoverer of Pluto grew up. But it is impossible to talk about Tombaugh without speaking of Percival Lowell who first noticed that there was an anonymous ninth planet beyond Neptune, and he called it Planet X. These two ingenious and analytical men who never worked physically together were honorable and true to the work and effort put forth to find Pluto (Planet X). The motto of Kansas is an appropriate title for each mans journey in finding the ninth planet. Furthermore it seemed to be worth it for the scientific visionary's; for the one who started the puzzle dieing hopeless, and for the one who solved it, triumphantly.

In 1894 Dr. Percival Lowell was a mathematician, a businessman, and an amateur astronomer, he was one of many astronomers searching the clear skies to observe planets and stars. He came from Massachusetts and a well to do family. When he became an astronomer he also was very focused on new discoveries. Lowell was the one who really popularized the notion of canals on Mars.

Also the Lowell Observatory which was named after him was the first astronomical observatory in Arizona. Lowell founded the observatory basically to explore Mars, with the possibility that there may be intelligent life on the planet. What seemed to keep Lowell encouraged was that Mars would soon be at its closest to Earth, and this would be a perfect time to do further study. But as one searches for something he seems to unlock other door, and the observatory's research quickly extended into other areas, and new discoveries.

Such as first evidence tat the universe is expanding by V.M. Slipher (1912-1917). Lowell then had a specially designed 24-inch Alvin Clark refracting telescope which he ordered and installed. This Clark Telescope for years was the major research tool of the observatory. Percival Lowell used this Clark Telescope for many hours resulting in many drawings of "Moon Globes" from observing Mars, and today they are considered a piece of history. Lowell also traveled to Mexico with this telescope to get a better view of Mars at its opposition with Earth.

Afterwards it came back to Mars Hill where the Lowell Observatory is located, 1897 and has been there ever since. The observatory has an educational outreach program for the general public where the Clark Telescope is still in use today. Because this telescope was the first of its kind in the late 1800's and early 1900's it's considered a Nation Historic Landmark. In 1905 Lowell predicted the existence of Planet X. He used minute observation of the perturbation f Uranus and Neptune to forecast his prediction. The first photographic search was made with a 5-inch lens between 1905-1907. Lowell then scanned the pairs by laying one over the other and by using a hand magnifier.

But at the same time Pluto was outside the search strip and too faint to be seen. So as Lowell carefully analyzed the residuals of Uranus and Neptune, he hoped to predict the position in the sky of Planet X. The next thing Lowell did was borrow a 9-inch camera from Swarthmore College from 1914-1916. Using that camera nearly 100 plates were taken over a considerable part of the sky. But out of all those plate taken only two of them had faint images of Pluto near the plate limit. The Lowell Observatory now owned a Carl Zeiss Blink Comparator for scanning the pairs of plates but the images of Pluto were missed! Lowell died a discouraged in 1916 of a stroke at the age of 61 years, he was a very exhausted man.

Lowell's widow went through bitter litigation's regarding his estate, and court fees robbed the estate of funds, and resources. Upon Lowell's death there was no more planet searching for the next thirteen years. In those years after Lowell's there has been a few who have came and went such as Guy Lowell who became the sole trustee, and purchased 13-inch unfurnished disks of glass, but died in 1927. Then trusteeship passed over to Roger Lowell Putnam, Percival's nephew.

He in turn got the president of Harvard University his uncle Dr. A. Lawrence Lowell to provide $10,000 so that he could complete the instrument. With funds assured V.M. Slipher plunged in to the work on the design. The very important task was to find a highly competent optician to finish the objective lens, which was to be a 3-element Cook type astrograph, and that's when Tombaugh came into the scene. Clyde Tombaugh grew up on a farm in western Kansas, and he had made several drawings of Jupiter and mars at the eyepiece of his new constructed 9 inch, f 9, reflector in the fall of 1928. He fashioned this telescope out of home ground lenses and dilapidated farm machinery, including a crankshaft from his father's 1910 Buick. On the basis of these drawings Tombaugh was invited in 1929 to work at the newly-built Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ on a 3 month trial.

Tombaugh's job was "flashing" photographic plates, which was systematically comparing images taken on successive nights in which a planet would appear as a moving point of light against the background of immobile stars. The work was dull and grueling, and Tombaugh estimated that he viewed over 90 million stars before find the rogue star that was to be successful. The focus was critical, and every pate had to be adjusted on a special measuring table in the dark room before being placed in the telescope. This focus was critical on the eyes, and with a tolerance of only 1/5 of a millimeter in a focal length of 1,700 millimeters (66 inches) at f 5.3. Some of these plates broke into two during one hour exposures. Tombaugh stopped this breaking of the plates by changing the order in the locking in the screws on the back of the plated holder, and so the plates were no longer under strain.

He experienced a lot of problems from "pulsing", to "double images", to "chug", and the large camera was sensitive to the "steadiness of seeing", but Tombaugh always found a way of correcting the problems. Clyde Tombaugh knew that it is of the utmost importance to have plates of a pair well-matched in regards to image quality and magnitude limit, otherwise the pair was unb linkable. Tombaugh quotes the old Greek philosopher, Socrates with saying "Know thyself", but Tombaugh says, "Know your telescope". In April 1929 the planet search was well on its way, but many became discouraged and couldn't devote much time to the laborious task of blinking because of other work. After Tombaugh started to fully understand the advantage of taking plates at the opposition also that for a given region in the Zodiac, there was only a one month observing window he began taking plates in Pisces. In January 1930 he re-photographed Gemini, and took the first plate of the Delta Geminorum region.

February 18, 1930 4: 00 PM Mountain Time Pluto was discovered. But they waited until March 13, Lowell's 75 birthday to announce the discovery. Along the way Tombaugh catalogued 29,548 galaxies, 1,807 variable stars, and 775 new asteroids. He says, "There are 15 million stars in the sky as bright as Pluto, ...

I had to pick one out of 15 million". There are few men who have observed so much of the galaxy. Tombaugh never really became world famous, but after his discovery, he however was given a raise of $10 a week, which is not bad during the height of the depression. Clyde Tombaugh passed on January 17, 1997 in his home in New Mexico. He was a long lived 90 years old at the time. Tombaugh earned degrees from the University of Kansas and Northern Arizona University.

He was an astronomy professor at New Mexico State University for many years until the end of his active career. The search for this mysterious planet led many on what seemed to be a wild goose chase, and some will say that Pluto... is sort of the last "astronomers' planet". Pluto is named after the Roman god of the under world (Hades), who was able to render himself invisible. But thus far we have learned some things about this small planet which is 0.002 of Earth.

Its orbital period is 248.5 years and its surface temperature is -235 and -210 C (38 to 63 K). Its composition is unknown, but its density (about 2 gm / cm 3) indicates that it is probably a mixture of 70% rock and 30% water ice. Pluto has the most eccentric orbit of any other planet in our solar system. Its distance from the sun ranges from about 30 to 50 Aus, and at times Pluto's orbit is well inside the orbit of Neptune. Spectroscopic examination of the light from Pluto indicates the primarily of nitrogen with some carbon monoxide and the presence of methane. Pluto orbits the Sun twice for every 3 orbits of Neptune, and even though Neptune and Pluto are so close they won't collide because their orbits are in resonance.

Since the force of gravity decreases with the square of the distance from the center of mass, the gravity on Pluto will be changed by a total of (5.5 x 5.5) / 455 = 0.07 or 1/15. The Hubble Space Telescope shows images of Pluto showing its surface, which was, released (March 8, 1996), it shows 12 major regions of light and dark features. These images were taken with Hubble's Faint Object Camera. Some say Pluto is not a planet but they are wrong because of these reasons: 1. a planet orbits the Sun (instead of a moon that orbits a planet) and 2. it must be big enough that its own gravity pulls it together into a sphere.

Although Pluto is smaller than several moons it still qualifies as a planet, it can be called a minor planet. Pluto also has a moon called Charon and two American Astronomers, James W. Christy and Robert S. Harrington discovered it in 1978. It was named after the mythological boatman who ferried souls across the river Styx to Pluto for judgement. Pluto just passed perihelion, which is the point at which it's closest to the Sun, and its gonna begin its hundred and twenty year voyage where it will be most distant in its orbit. Overtime Pluto will get a lot less sunlight, and cool off, we must take advantage of this opportunity now or we will have to wait another two hundred and forty years to repeat the experiment.

In conclusion these two men and their struggles, numerous hours, sleepless nights, and their significant devotion in finding the ninth planet their quest deserve the utmost recognition. In the beginning I called a puzzle because Lowell started it by naming this anonymous Planet X, and disappointed ly died never finding it. Tombaugh was a reasoning hope and completed this puzzle by putting the pieces together, and gave the United States its first score of an American found planet called Pluto. We owe these two men great thanks for contributing to our exploration of the solar system and opening our eyes. By helping us to see past the obvious, and to stay on point. Astronomers are our detectives for nature, above and beyond, and have assisted us with many observations and discoveries for centuries..