Media advisory: Experts available to discuss NASA mission and Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto discoverer


Mon, 07/13/2015

author

Brendan M. Lynch


LAWRENCE — After a nine-year voyage, on Tuesday, July 14, NASA’s New Horizons space probe will make a historic flyby of Pluto, the dwarf planet discovered by University of Kansas graduate Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, just before he entered KU.

New Horizons carries a portion of the ashes of Tombaugh, who died in 1997, making him the first person to be laid to rest beyond our solar system.

Two experts at KU are available to comment to media about the significance of NASA’s Pluto visit and Tombaugh’s time at the university.

Bruce Twarog is a professor of physics and astronomy at KU. Twarog’s research centers on observational astronomy and astrophysics. He concentrates on the application of precision photometry with intermediate-bandwidth optical filters to understand stellar and galactic evolution.

“Clyde Tombaugh spent his life promoting science, particularly astronomy, not just in Kansas and New Mexico, but around the world,” Twarog said. “He was an inspiration to generations of planetary scientists who were willing to look beyond the big, bright and obvious to achieve a deeper understanding of the solar system. New Horizons will provide extraordinary detail on a defining object that inhabits the inner edge of the trans-Neptunian region that extends a thousand times farther than the orbit of Neptune to the true edge of the solar system.”

Tombaugh discovered Pluto while working for the Lowell Observatory in Arizona as he earned money to pay for his freshman year at KU.

Mike Reid is the director of the​ KU History project.

“Tombaugh was ready to come to KU, and he was waiting for his crops to come in near Burdett, Kansas — but a hailstorm wiped out the crops so he had no money for KU,” Reid said. “He saw an ad in an astronomy magazine that there was a part-time position at Lowell Observatory. So he wrote them with some if his observations, and they hired him. There, he discovered Pluto. But as soon as he got money from Lowell, he came here. He had a burning desire to come to KU and wasn’t going to let anything stop him. In the meantime, he'd discovered a planet.”

For that discovery, he’d also been awarded a scholarship by KU. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1936 and earned his master’s in astronomy in 1939.

“He’s the only freshman who ever discovered a planet before he came to KU,” Reid added.

To schedule an interview with Twarog or Reid, contact Brendan M. Lynch at 785-864-8855 or Brendan@ku.edu.

Top photo: Clyde Tombaugh, center, is shown with Dean Werner and Professor Olin Templin. Image courtesy University Archives/ Spencer Research Library.

Photo at right: Clyde Tombaugh stands at the entrance of the Lowell Observatory. Image courtesy KUHistory.com.

Mon, 07/13/2015

author

Brendan M. Lynch

Media Contacts

Brendan M. Lynch

KU News Service

785-864-8855