A dated image enters the distance debate

Observations from the West African island provided an independent route to the same scientific test.

With the Sun obscured, stars close to its edge became visible; interpretation of the plates came afterward.

On the night of 5–6 October Hubble photographed a spiral arm of Andromeda.

Hubble initially marked three suspected novae on the image; later comparisons revealed one was variable.

The 100-inch telescope recorded faint points in Andromeda that could be compared across nights.

Clyde Tombaugh found a moving point in the photographic plates he had been comparing.

By comparing images of the same star field, Tombaugh detected the movement of the object later named Pluto.

The discovery itself took place on 18 February; public announcement and naming came later.

The object initially joined the planetary list and was reclassified as a dwarf planet many decades afterward.

The Soviet Union launched the first artificial Earth satellite from a spaceport in the Kazakh Soviet Republic.