On This Day In Space: Feb. 18, 1930: Pluto discovered by Clyde Tombaugh (Image Credit: Space.com)
On Feb. 18, 1930, the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto!
Before he discovered Pluto, another astronomer named Percival Lowell had spent over a decade trying to find it. He had theorized that a ninth planet existed based on wobbles seen in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. But it wasn’t until Tombaugh started using a new observation technique that Pluto was first spotted.
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The new technique involved something called a blink microscope, which Tombaugh used to compare photographic plates and look for signs of moving objects.
In 2006, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet, though the debate on what defines a planet has continued in subsequent years.
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