ASTRONOMER

Clyde Tombaugh

1906 - 1997

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Clyde William Tombaugh (; February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer and telescope maker, renowned for discovering Pluto in 1930. This marked the first detection of what would eventually be recognized as the Kuiper belt, a vast region of icy bodies beyond Neptune. At the time, Pluto was heralded as the ninth planet in the Solar System, a classification that stood for over seven decades. Tombaugh's discovery was a monumental milestone in 20th-century astronomy and established his legacy as one of the few individuals to discover a major planetary body. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Clyde Tombaugh is the 43rd most popular astronomer (up from 49th in 2019), the 662nd most popular biography from United States (up from 735th in 2019) and the 9th most popular American Astronomer.

Clyde Tombaugh is most famous for discovering Pluto in 1930.

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Among ASTRONOMERS

Among astronomers, Clyde Tombaugh ranks 43 out of 644. Before him are William Lassell, Robert Woodrow Wilson, Vesto Slipher, Johannes Hevelius, Asaph Hall, and Johann Bayer. After him are Martin Ryle, Wilhelm Schickard, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, Michel Mayor, Arthur Eddington, and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1906, Clyde Tombaugh ranks 39. Before him are Sergei Korolev, Hassan al-Banna, Hermann Fegelein, Léon Degrelle, Ed Gein, and Josef Kramer. After him are Marcelo Caetano, Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Soichiro Honda, Alexey Stakhanov, Wassily Leontief, and Max Delbrück. Among people deceased in 1997, Clyde Tombaugh ranks 25. Before him are Melvin Calvin, The Notorious B.I.G., Robert Mitchum, Hugo Gunckel Lüer, Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, and William S. Burroughs. After him are Isaiah Berlin, Hans Eysenck, Bohumil Hrabal, Roy Lichtenstein, Fred Zinnemann, and Edward Mills Purcell.

Others Born in 1906

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Clyde Tombaugh ranks 662 out of 20,380. Before him are William S. Burroughs (1914), Paul Berg (1926), Christian B. Anfinsen (1916), Dave Grohl (1969), Arthur Leonard Schawlow (1921), and Chuck Jones (1912). After him are Bill Hewlett (1913), George Herbert Mead (1863), Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834), Tennessee Williams (1911), Angela Davis (1944), and Edwin Stanton (1814).

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Among ASTRONOMERS In United States

Among astronomers born in United States, Clyde Tombaugh ranks 9. Before him are Carl Sagan (1934), Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958), Charles Greeley Abbot (1872), Robert Woodrow Wilson (1936), Vesto Slipher (1875), and Asaph Hall (1829). After him are William Alfred Fowler (1911), Edward Emerson Barnard (1857), Vera Rubin (1928), Russell Alan Hulse (1950), Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868), and Percival Lowell (1855).

American born Astronomers

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