02-07-2017, 06:44 PM
Mermaid, I had no idea you might have a connection to Clyde Tombaugh! Lots of people were upset when Pluto was reclassified (to a dwarf planet, not a moon), but that's the way science works. I'm sure Tombaugh would have been disappointed, but would also have understood the scientific reasons.
No matter what, Pluto has turned out to be an extraordinary place and there's still much to learn. I don't know if you saw it, but there was a thread here not too long ago about the recent pass of Pluto by the New Horizons probe:
www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21248
The probe is still operating as it gets farther from both Pluto and us, and think it's fitting that it contains some of Tombaugh's ashes so he remains part of the mission to explore the Kuiper Belt. The container has the inscription:
"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)."
http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressre...060203.asp
No matter what, Pluto has turned out to be an extraordinary place and there's still much to learn. I don't know if you saw it, but there was a thread here not too long ago about the recent pass of Pluto by the New Horizons probe:
www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21248
The probe is still operating as it gets farther from both Pluto and us, and think it's fitting that it contains some of Tombaugh's ashes so he remains part of the mission to explore the Kuiper Belt. The container has the inscription:
"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)."
http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressre...060203.asp