STREATOR, Ill. (AP) – The NASA spacecraft set to complete a flyby of Pluto on Tuesday is carrying some of the ashes of the Illinois astronomer who discovered the dwarf planet.
Clyde Tombaugh grew up on a farm in Streator, 80 miles southwest of Chicago, where he became enthralled with the night sky with the help of his uncle’s homemade telescope.
That fascination led him to a job at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he discovered Pluto in 1930 at the age of 24.
The Daily Southtown reports that relatives in his Illinois hometown are remembering Tombaugh as an inspiration as the NASA flyby approaches.
The New Horizons spacecraft and its cargo of scientific instruments are set to zoom past Pluto after traveling 3 billion miles over the past nine years.
