My Dad Discovered Pluto
Pluto becomes a dwarf
In 2006, the International
Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto, separating it from the eight
other "classical planets" and placing it with two other newly found
"dwarf planets." When the Associated Press asked her
how her husband would have felt, my mother Patricia Tombaugh, whom
my dad married in 1934, said, "He was a scientist. He would
understand they had a real problem when they started finding several
of these things flying around the place." In this 2009 photo, my
mother stands before the double 16" reflector at the ranch of its
new owner near Animas, New Mexico.