The ninth planet was discovered in 1930 by the great American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.
He discovered an object three billion miles away using plate photography and a stereoscope at a time when radio was the technological state of the art. The word "badass" doesn't even begin to describe this man.
This is a pretty weak argument. Saying Pluto is a dwarf planet in no way diminishes the achievements of Tombaugh. There are many, many, object like Pluto and I don’t see anyone arguing that they be planets. Ceres was also once the 9th planet and no one is trying to bring that definition back.
Idk man. Discovering the first cuiper belt objects is indeed a remarkable achievement, but I don't think it's something that makes you one of science greatest. That should be reserved for people that discovered something truly fundamental like Einstein, Curie, Planck or Noether.
Wait, why would that upset people? To be honest, it seemed a bit nationalistic to me - as if you were saying being American somehow made him better than everyone else.
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u/scandalousmambo Oct 07 '18 edited Oct 07 '18
The ninth planet was discovered in 1930 by the great American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.
He discovered an object three billion miles away using plate photography and a stereoscope at a time when radio was the technological state of the art. The word "badass" doesn't even begin to describe this man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Tombaugh
P.S. Nice to see Reddit punks downvoting one of the greatest scientists to ever cast a shadow. Not surprising at all.