Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-21
Discovery of Distant Planet
Triumph of Mathematics

umph for pure mathematics, the Kan
sas City Star states that now, after
the lapse of nearly 100 years, mathe-
MATES has scored another victory, and
a planet beyond Neptune has been dis
covered. 1t is to the credit Of American
astronomy, which has come brilliantly
to the front in the last generation. that
achievement" concludes that paper.
X X 4
With a tribute to a kansas farm
boy" the Detroit News states: mot long
ago Clyde Tombaugh was boy on a
Kansas farm and interested in the
stars. He became a student of
astronomy and in the Lowell Observa-
tory, at Flagstaff, Ariz., participated in
the searches of the heavens.
Hitherto, without exception, we think,
the great astronomic discoveries have
been reserved to the hoary men of sci
ence, whose peering into and picturiza-
ton Of the heavens took many, many
years. Yet to Clyde falls the honor of
perceiving first new speck of light, a
strange spot on a Photographic plate,
which turns out to be not only new
star, but a new planet. 1t seems to be the
lost planet, the one prior calculation
had assumed to exist, yet could not
find As large as the earth, or larger,
it whirls around beyond the most re-
mote member of the solar system, Nep-
tune; or, as they say, As times farther
from the sun than the earth. Clydes
case amounts to no less than an ex-
ceedingly interesting modern miracle.
The chances are simply limitlesS for
the bows who become interested deeply
enough, earnestly enough and persist
emily enough in any serious subject"
Describing the planet as player in
the "outfield on the celestial team" the
Chicago Daily News advises that Gin
the circumstances 1t would be fitting TO
call the starry outfielder Babe Ruth"
while the Providence Journal asks:
"Whv not a name which brings nobler
associations than that of any Greek
gods. the name of the Titan Prometheus,
who scaled the walls of heaven to bring
light to mortals, who stands as the
eternal embodiment of human discovery
and progress?"
"What a mere speck in the universe
Is the earth How futile the fights of
men for possession of an insignificant
portion of It'll" exclaims the Cleveland
Plain Dealer, while the st. Louis Globe
Democrat voices as queries from the
public: How many moons has it? Does
it have anything resembling Saturn's
rings? Will any new substances be
found there not known to earthly chem
istry and physics?"
I'VE are not likely for some time"
advises the. Charleston Evening Post,
Ito get word to the new member of the
family that we are glad to welcome it
to the old homeStead-where it has been
all along, perhaps even before we ever
came in. 1t may not, of course, be the
last. There is no telling how many
other planets there may be in the same
astronomical arrangement as ourselves,
but this one brings the family up to
proportions which should suffice for
time. 1t will take a long while to find
out the disposition of the newly dis
covered member of the system and it
Will be interesting, If not very i'm
portant, to learn something about this
big fellow who has been rollicking out
there on the frontiers of the estate
without hts presence being SO much as
suspected by those of us who have been
smuggling up to the home fire."