Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Born near Streator, Ill., in 1906, Clyde Tombaugh spent his early life on farms in Illinois and Kansas.
Enchanted with the stars, he got started with a telescope from the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog at about age 12. Soon, he wanted more. Money was scarce, so he made high-powered telescopes, grinding glass for them in a root cellar. He mapped planetary movements and sent his best work to Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. A job offer followed. He was 24.
The discovery of Pluto made Tombaugh a celebrity.
He died in 1997. Now, some of his ashes are aboard a research spaceship hurtling toward a 2015 encounter with Pluto.
