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Needle in a Haystack: How Clyde W. Tombaugh Found an Awesome New World
Diane Phelps Budden, author
Growing up on a Kansan farm gave Clyde W. Tombaugh plenty of sky to explore, plenty of time to learn all he could about astronomy. He and his father and uncle trained their homemade telescope on the planets. Clyde drew the surfaces of Mars and Jupiter and shared his drawings with Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Gadzooks! They hired him to help search for a new planet! After 300 days of scouring the sky with a photographic telescope, Clyde pinpointed Pluto’s location on February 18, 1930. With tenacity and a passion for astronomy, he found the last planet in the solar system. The scientific community and the public were jubilant. Clyde's story is great for STEM students. The back matter provides a follow up to the status of Pluto and the 2015 New Horizons Pluto flyby.
Reviews
Alan Stern, Principal Investigator, NASA’s New Horizons Mission
“I was interested in space flight from the
time I was 8 years old and read everything
I could find about it. In life you have to
find your passion and figure out how to
accomplish it. If your dream is to be a
scientist or astronomer, study hard, learn
everything you can and plan to be the best
there is!”
—Alan Stern, Principal Investigator,
NASA’s New Horizons Mission
Kevin Schindler
“The inspiring story of Clyde W. Tombaugh
and his discovery of Pluto is as much about
personal dedication and persistence as it is
a scientific quest. It is a tale for both young
and old, and this book captures it well for
young audiences.”
—Kevin Schindler, Historian,
Lowell Observatory
