Pluto's discoverer makes his greatest journey 25 years after death

As NASA’s New Horizons probe zips past Pluto, in a historic moment for science, the shuttle is, aside from a bundle of scientific equipment, also carrying a few less-practical knick-knacks as well. One in particular, the ashes of one Clyde Tombaugh. 

Tombaugh was the astronomer that originally discovered Pluto on February 18, 1930, at the age of 24. Working at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, he noticed a discrepancy in photos of the night sky and, after thousands of hours poring over photographs from the telescope, identified the celestial body. Scientists now believe there may be thousands of other similar objects beyond Pluto in a region called the Kuiper Belt. 

Clyde Tombaugh passed away in 1997 at the age of 90 and, years later in 2006, his ashes were put onto the New Horizons Mission spacecraft in a canister attached to the upper deck. The canister carries an inscription from the New Horizons Mission chief, Alan Stern: "Interned herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the solar system's "third zone." Adelle and Muron's boy, Patricia's husband, Annette and Alden's father, astronomer, teacher, punster, and friend: Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906-1997)." 

The Spacecraft also carries a few other strange items including a small piece of Spaceship One, a sub-orbital spaceplane that completed the first manned spaceflight in 204, a state quarter from both Maryland and Florida, where the New Horizons was assembled and launched respectively, a CD with the names of over 400,000 people who participated in the “Send your name to Pluto” program when the mission launched, a CD with the names of all the members of the mission, two versions of the US flag, and a 1991 US stamp that reads, “Pluto: Not Yet Explored”.