February 6th 06, 05:08 AM
http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2006/060203.asp
For Immediate Release
February 3, 2006
Media Contacts
Michael Buckley
JHU Applied Physics Laboratory
Phone: 240-228-7536 or 443-778-7536
Dr. Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute
(303) 546-9670
Happy 100th Birthday, Clyde Tombaugh
NASA's New Horizons Mission Salutes Pluto's Discoverer, born Feb. 4,
1906
When the late American astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered planet
Pluto 76 years ago this month, he opened the gateway to an unknown
region of ancient, icy objects unlike any worlds in our solar system -
and touched off a revolution in our understanding of Earth's
ever-expanding planetary neighborhood.
Feb. 4, 2006, marks the 100th anniversary of Tombaugh's birth - and
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is speeding
toward the planet he discovered, carrying a small amount of his ashes
along with the dreams of all who, like this Kansas farm boy, gazed
toward the heavens in the name of exploration and discovery. New
Horizons, the first mission to Pluto, will provide the closest look
ever
at the ninth planet while completing the initial reconnaissance of the
solar system.
"Clyde Tombaugh was a grand American, and New Horizons is a grand
American adventure," says Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons principal
investigator, from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.
Tombaugh was 24 years old and working at Lowell Observatory
in Flagstaff, Ariz., when he made his landmark
find in 1930 - capping a search for a "trans-Neptunian" planet in which
he photographed two-thirds of the sky and spent thousands of hours
examining millions of star images. Thought at first to be a planetary
oddity because of its small size and strange, elliptical orbit, Pluto
eventually heralded the discovery of the Kuiper Belt and the growing
realization that small, icy dwarf planets are common in our solar
system. The Kuiper Belt is an expansive "third zone" on the solar
system's frontier that contains thousands of worlds different from both
the rocky inner planets and the outer gas giants.
Tombaugh died on January 17, 1997, a few weeks shy of his 91st
birthday,
almost exactly nine years before New Horizons launched from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Jan. 19, 2006.
In memory of the first American to discover a planet in our solar
system, the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft carries a small
aluminum
canister containing some of Tombaugh's cremated remains, donated by his
family. These remains will fly past Pluto with New Horizons on July 14,
2015, and then on past Kuiper Belt objects in the succeeding years. New
Horizons will eventually escape our solar system altogether and enter
interstellar space. As such, Tombaugh's remains have become the first
to
be launched to the stars.
The memorial canister, about two inches wide and half-an-inch tall, is
attached to the inside, upper deck of the spacecraft. It also includes
an inscription penned by Stern:
Interned herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer
of
Pluto and the solar system's "third zone." Adelle and Muron's boy,
Patricia's husband, Annette and Alden's father, astronomer, teacher,
punster, and friend: Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906-1997).
"It's a wonderful tribute," says Patricia "Patsy" Tombaugh, Clyde
Tombaugh's wife of 62 years, who lives in Las Cruces, N.M. "I certainly
thought of my husband when the rocket launched, because a part of him
was on there. It seemed so appropriate, too, because it was so close to
his 100th birthday."
"Professor Tombaugh's historic discovery of Pluto was a contribution to
planetary science that we now know heralded a paradigm shift in our
understanding of the geography of our home solar system," Stern says.
"In many ways, his work was decades ahead of its time. It is our honor
to celebrate the centenary of Clyde's birth today, and to have launched
some of his remains last month on the historic mission of exploration
that is New Horizons."
Stern w ill speak at a tribute to Tombaugh tomorrow at Kansas
University
in Lawrence, where Tombaugh earned bachelor's and master's degrees in
astronomy. Set for 8 p.m. CST at the Alderson Auditorium at the Kansas
Union, Stern's talk precedes a star viewing near the university's
Memorial Stadium. (For information visit:
http://www.news.ku.edu/2006/january/26/tombaugh.shtml)
In a 2002 birthday tribute - shortly after NASA selected the New
Horizons team to develop its Pluto mission - scientists dedicated the
Tombaugh Science Operations Center at Southwest Research Institute in
Boulder. The "TSOC" w ill generate New Horizons' science observation
plans, distribute and archive data, and support scientific
investigators
using New Horizons data for the mission's flyby of Jupiter in February
2007, its flyby of the Pluto system in July 2015, and any Kuiper Belt
object flybys thereafter.
For more information about the New Horizons mission - including
recollections <http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/020306.htm>
from
the Tombaugh family on life with the discoverer of Pluto - visit
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu .
New Horizons is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program.
Stern
leads the mission and science team as principal investigator. The Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.,
manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate and
designed,
built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is a not for profit laboratory and
division of The Johns Hopkins University. APL conducts research and
development primarily for national security and for nondefense projects
of national and global significance. APL is located midway between
Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in Laurel, Md. For information, visit
www.jhuapl.edu .
For Immediate Release
February 3, 2006
Media Contacts
Michael Buckley
JHU Applied Physics Laboratory
Phone: 240-228-7536 or 443-778-7536
Dr. Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute
(303) 546-9670
Happy 100th Birthday, Clyde Tombaugh
NASA's New Horizons Mission Salutes Pluto's Discoverer, born Feb. 4,
1906
When the late American astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered planet
Pluto 76 years ago this month, he opened the gateway to an unknown
region of ancient, icy objects unlike any worlds in our solar system -
and touched off a revolution in our understanding of Earth's
ever-expanding planetary neighborhood.
Feb. 4, 2006, marks the 100th anniversary of Tombaugh's birth - and
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is speeding
toward the planet he discovered, carrying a small amount of his ashes
along with the dreams of all who, like this Kansas farm boy, gazed
toward the heavens in the name of exploration and discovery. New
Horizons, the first mission to Pluto, will provide the closest look
ever
at the ninth planet while completing the initial reconnaissance of the
solar system.
"Clyde Tombaugh was a grand American, and New Horizons is a grand
American adventure," says Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons principal
investigator, from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.
Tombaugh was 24 years old and working at Lowell Observatory
in Flagstaff, Ariz., when he made his landmark
find in 1930 - capping a search for a "trans-Neptunian" planet in which
he photographed two-thirds of the sky and spent thousands of hours
examining millions of star images. Thought at first to be a planetary
oddity because of its small size and strange, elliptical orbit, Pluto
eventually heralded the discovery of the Kuiper Belt and the growing
realization that small, icy dwarf planets are common in our solar
system. The Kuiper Belt is an expansive "third zone" on the solar
system's frontier that contains thousands of worlds different from both
the rocky inner planets and the outer gas giants.
Tombaugh died on January 17, 1997, a few weeks shy of his 91st
birthday,
almost exactly nine years before New Horizons launched from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Jan. 19, 2006.
In memory of the first American to discover a planet in our solar
system, the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft carries a small
aluminum
canister containing some of Tombaugh's cremated remains, donated by his
family. These remains will fly past Pluto with New Horizons on July 14,
2015, and then on past Kuiper Belt objects in the succeeding years. New
Horizons will eventually escape our solar system altogether and enter
interstellar space. As such, Tombaugh's remains have become the first
to
be launched to the stars.
The memorial canister, about two inches wide and half-an-inch tall, is
attached to the inside, upper deck of the spacecraft. It also includes
an inscription penned by Stern:
Interned herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer
of
Pluto and the solar system's "third zone." Adelle and Muron's boy,
Patricia's husband, Annette and Alden's father, astronomer, teacher,
punster, and friend: Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906-1997).
"It's a wonderful tribute," says Patricia "Patsy" Tombaugh, Clyde
Tombaugh's wife of 62 years, who lives in Las Cruces, N.M. "I certainly
thought of my husband when the rocket launched, because a part of him
was on there. It seemed so appropriate, too, because it was so close to
his 100th birthday."
"Professor Tombaugh's historic discovery of Pluto was a contribution to
planetary science that we now know heralded a paradigm shift in our
understanding of the geography of our home solar system," Stern says.
"In many ways, his work was decades ahead of its time. It is our honor
to celebrate the centenary of Clyde's birth today, and to have launched
some of his remains last month on the historic mission of exploration
that is New Horizons."
Stern w ill speak at a tribute to Tombaugh tomorrow at Kansas
University
in Lawrence, where Tombaugh earned bachelor's and master's degrees in
astronomy. Set for 8 p.m. CST at the Alderson Auditorium at the Kansas
Union, Stern's talk precedes a star viewing near the university's
Memorial Stadium. (For information visit:
http://www.news.ku.edu/2006/january/26/tombaugh.shtml)
In a 2002 birthday tribute - shortly after NASA selected the New
Horizons team to develop its Pluto mission - scientists dedicated the
Tombaugh Science Operations Center at Southwest Research Institute in
Boulder. The "TSOC" w ill generate New Horizons' science observation
plans, distribute and archive data, and support scientific
investigators
using New Horizons data for the mission's flyby of Jupiter in February
2007, its flyby of the Pluto system in July 2015, and any Kuiper Belt
object flybys thereafter.
For more information about the New Horizons mission - including
recollections <http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/020306.htm>
from
the Tombaugh family on life with the discoverer of Pluto - visit
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu .
New Horizons is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program.
Stern
leads the mission and science team as principal investigator. The Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.,
manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate and
designed,
built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is a not for profit laboratory and
division of The Johns Hopkins University. APL conducts research and
development primarily for national security and for nondefense projects
of national and global significance. APL is located midway between
Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in Laurel, Md. For information, visit
www.jhuapl.edu .