On this day in 1930, Pluto was discovered by 24-year-old American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, marking one of the most remarkable achievements in modern astronomy.
Tombaugh had no formal training in astronomy when he made the breakthrough that led to Pluto discovered beyond Neptune.
A farm boy searching for Planet X
Born into a farming family in Illinois, Tombaugh developed a passion for astronomy as a teenager. Despite financial hardship preventing him from attending university, he continued sketching detailed drawings of planets using his homemade telescopes.
His work caught the attention of Lowell Observatory in Arizona, which hired him as an assistant and groundskeeper.
At the time, astronomers were searching for “Planet X” – a hypothetical planet believed to exist beyond Neptune due to perceived irregularities in planetary orbits.
A tiny moving speck
Using the observatory’s astrograph telescope, Tombaugh painstakingly compared photographic plates of the night sky, looking for an object that shifted position against the background stars.
On 18 February 1930, he spotted a tiny moving point of light- a faint speck that turned out not to be a star, but a new planetary body.
The discovery of Pluto reshaped understanding of the solar system and was celebrated worldwide.
From planet to dwarf planet
Pluto was classified as the ninth planet for 76 years before being reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006.
Despite the change in status, Pluto remains one of the most iconic discoveries in astronomy.
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