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A new planet, if there was one, could be anywhere in the Zodiac belt, or even outside of it. This book tells the story of the discovery of the ninth planet, Pluto, from my own personal experience. I have attempted to relate a complex scientific event in as popular a language as possible. The technical aspects of an astronomical problem are expressed in descriptive form, and illustrated with diagrams and photographs to aid the reader in grasping the fundamental concepts involved. Deliberately, I have not included a single mathematical equation. Indeed, the success in finding the new planet was not due to complex mathematical theory, but to basically simple observational procedure and an enormous amount of painstaking work. Contrary to wide-spread entertained opinion, the mathematical prediction was of little aid in actually finding the planet, because of earlier megative observational results. To single out the planet from a sky background, teeming with millions of stars was like finding a needle somewhere in a large haystack. No other story about Pluto could be written like this one. It is flavored with human interest and amusing incidents. Several aspects of the problems involved in the planet search project have not been previously described to the public. Indeed, the scientific community is not aware of some aspects, judging from expositions in textbooks and others. One of the questions so frequently asked, "How did you know the object was beyond the orbit of Neputne when
Title | Typewritten drafts, c. 1979 |
Series | Writings, Box 053, Folder 003 |
Creator | Tombaugh, Clyde William, 1906-1997; Christy, James W., 1938- |
Subject | Tombaugh, Clyde William, 1906-1997. Out of the darkness: The planet Pluto--Manuscripts; Books |
Date Original | c. 1979 |
Digital Publisher | New Mexico State University Library |
Collection | NMSU Department of Astronomy: Clyde W. Tombaugh Papers |
Source | Scan produced from physical item held by the NMSU Library Archives & Special Collections Department |
Type | Text |
Format | image/tiff |
Language | eng |
Title | Page 1 |
Series | Writings, Box 053, Folder 003 |
Creator | Tombaugh, Clyde William, 1906-1997 |
Subject | Tombaugh, Clyde William, 1906-1997. Out of the darkness: The planet Pluto--Manuscripts; Books |
Date Original | c. 1979 |
Digital Publisher | New Mexico State University Library |
Collection | NMSU Department of Astronomy: Clyde W. Tombaugh Papers |
Digital Identifier | Ms0407pp053003_0010001.tif |
Source | Scan produced from physical item held by the NMSU Library Archives & Special Collections Department |
Type | Text |
Format | image/tiff |
Language | eng |
OCR | A new planet, if there was one, could be anywhere in the Zodiac belt, or even outside of it. This book tells the story of the discovery of the ninth planet, Pluto, from my own personal experience. I have attempted to relate a complex scientific event in as popular a language as possible. The technical aspects of an astronomical problem are expressed in descriptive form, and illustrated with diagrams and photographs to aid the reader in grasping the fundamental concepts involved. Deliberately, I have not included a single mathematical equation. Indeed, the success in finding the new planet was not due to complex mathematical theory, but to basically simple observational procedure and an enormous amount of painstaking work. Contrary to wide-spread entertained opinion, the mathematical prediction was of little aid in actually finding the planet, because of earlier megative observational results. To single out the planet from a sky background, teeming with millions of stars was like finding a needle somewhere in a large haystack. No other story about Pluto could be written like this one. It is flavored with human interest and amusing incidents. Several aspects of the problems involved in the planet search project have not been previously described to the public. Indeed, the scientific community is not aware of some aspects, judging from expositions in textbooks and others. One of the questions so frequently asked, "How did you know the object was beyond the orbit of Neputne when |
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