Tombaugh

Stand by for more close-ups of Pluto. NASA plans to release the best images yet of the object formerly known as the 9th planet in our solar system.

NASA has released the first, close-up photograph of Pluto, which appears to show a heart-shaped image on the surface. NASA calls it a "love letter" from Pluto. The mysterious dwarf planet, once considered the 9th planet in our solar system, was discovered in 1930 by Kansas farmer Clyde Tombaugh.

NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto has special meaning for a Kansas City man. Doug Tombaugh is the nephew of Clyde Tombaugh, the Kansas farmer who discovered Pluto in 1930. Doug remembers his uncle as a man filled with scientific curiosity... the kind of man who builds his own telescopes by hand.