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Patsy Tombaugh, the woman who looked after the world her husband discovered, passed away Thursday at the age of 99 in Las Cruces, N.M., after a series of health problems.
She was the widow of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who found Pluto in 1930. After Clyde's death in 1997, Patsy took on the job of keeping Pluto in the spotlight, during a time when more worlds were being discovered on the solar system's edge. She was a guest of honor at the 2006 launch of New Horizons, NASA's mission to Pluto, and was in tears at liftoff. When Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet later that year, few people took it harder than Patsy. "I don't know just how you handle it," she told reporters. "It kind of sounds like I just lost my job."
But she didn't: Patsy continued to promote Pluto's planethood, sitting in the public gallery when the New Mexico House of Representatives passed a resolution creating "Pluto Planet Day." When I visited her in 2009, she had a feeling that people would still be talking about Pluto long after she was gone. "It looks like we're going to have to keep on discussing this," she told me.
Patsy is survived by her son, Alden; her daughter, Annette Tombaugh-Sitze; five grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. A memorial service is scheduled Feb. 12 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Las Cruces, where a stained-glass window already serves as a tribute to the Tombaughs.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Did she have one of those "You bet Uranus Pluto is a planet" shirts?
I do not know about her wardrobe, but I proudly wear my own shirt that reads: Pluto, we hardly knew ye.
My condolences to her loved ones.
On a lame-ass side note, Alan, what's with the wussy euphemism "passed away"? She died, OK? She lived a long, remarkable life as a teacher, community leader, wife of a scientist, mom/grandma, and now she has died, which, however much she'll be missed, after 99 years, in its sad way, is OK. Death is part of the natural order of things and wussy euphemisms cannot change it.
HOLY CRAP Just me, get over yourself. "Passed away" is just one of many ways people say a person has died. It means exactly the same thing. Just because you make a lame attempt to show respect for the late Mrs. Tombaugh doesn't excuse your railing against "passed away" as some kind of "wussy euphemism". You condolences lost all their meaning when you went off on that "lame ass side note".
They were a breed of people well ahead of their times.
Pluto is a planet.
Is the naming game still open for P4? They should call it Tombaugh.
Even though she was 99, this is incredibly sad news, as she had hoped to see the New Horizons flyby of Pluto in 2015, and so many people were rooting for her. I hope she knows that many of us plan to continue to promote Pluto's planethood and will not give up until the controversial 2006 IAU decision is discredited and/or overturned. Just the fact that it remains contested and a matter of debate five years later is enough to show that that vote is hardly the last word on the matter and that many astronomers do not accept the decision. Yes, people will be talking about Pluto for a long time, as even children understand that its status is a matter of debate and, along with people of all ages, anticipate the first close ups of Pluto when the New Horizons flyby occurs in three years.
What Laurel said - word.
It almost brings a tear to your eye to know that some of Clyde Tombaugh's cremated remains are scooting along with New Horizons.
It would have been good if she could have made it to 2015, but 99 is still a very respectable age. That Pluto is only a fraction the size of our moon, makes its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh using a 13 inch telescope all the more remarkable.
As for the debate on the definition of the term "planet", I see logic in not including Pluto with the much larger 8 planets. (Or maybe the 4 + 4 planets.) I just hope that by the time New Horizons does flyby Pluto, I will still be around to see the results.