The Discovery of Pluto: A Search for [Deep Dive] - February 18th, 2026

[00:00] Nina Park: Hello and welcome to Deep Dive. [00:03] Nina Park: We are so glad to have you with us today. [00:05] Marcus Shaw: We really are. [00:06] Marcus Shaw: Today is February 18th, and we have a lineup that covers everything from the outer reaches of our solar system [00:13] Marcus Shaw: to the very foundations of modern technology and music. [00:16] Nina Park: It is a day of massive breakthroughs, Marcus. [00:19] Nina Park: We're starting with a story of patience and observation that completely changed our cosmic map back in 1930. [00:26] Marcus Shaw: You're talking about Pluto. [00:28] Marcus Shaw: I've always loved the story of how it was found because it wasn't some high-tech sensor sweep. [00:34] Marcus Shaw: It was pure old-school detective work. [00:36] Nina Park: Exactly. [00:37] Nina Park: Clyde Tombaugh was only 24 years old when he made the discovery at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. [00:45] Nina Park: He was looking for something astronomers called Planet X, a [00:48] Nina Park: a theoretical world beyond Neptune that they believed was tugging on other planets' orbits. [00:55] Marcus Shaw: No way. The way he found it is wild. [00:58] Marcus Shaw: He had to compare photographic plates taken weeks apart. [01:01] Marcus Shaw: He was literally staring at thousands of stars, [01:04] Marcus Shaw: looking for the one tiny dot that moved between frames. [01:08] Marcus Shaw: Nina, that is some serious dedication to the craft. [01:11] Nina Park: It took months of sifting through those plates, [01:15] Nina Park: but on this day in 1930, [01:17] Nina Park: he finally spotted that moving object. [01:19] Nina Park: It ended a decades-long search. [01:22] Nina Park: Of course, the story of Pluto took a famous turn in 2006 [01:25] Nina Park: when it was reclassified as a dwarf planet, [01:29] Nina Park: but for 76 years, it was our official ninth planet. [01:33] Marcus Shaw: Dwarf planet or not, it's still a legend. [01:36] Marcus Shaw: But moving from the stars to something much more grounded and intense, [01:39] Marcus Shaw: We have to talk about what happened in 1943 at the University of Munich. [01:44] Nina Park: Right. February 18th is a solemn anniversary for the German resistance. [01:50] Nina Park: This was the day the Gestapo arrested Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans. [01:55] Nina Park: They were part of a group called the White Rose. [01:57] Marcus Shaw: That's remarkable. [01:59] Marcus Shaw: The White Rose was essentially a small group of students and a professor who were distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. [02:05] Marcus Shaw: Sophie was only 21. [02:08] Marcus Shaw: It's hard to imagine the kind of steel you need to have to do that in the middle of Nazi Germany. [02:13] Nina Park: They had distributed six different leaflets calling for active opposition to the regime. [02:19] Nina Park: When they were caught at the university, things moved incredibly fast. [02:23] Nina Park: Sophie, Hans, and their friend Christoph Probst were executed just four days later. [02:30] Nina Park: Sophie's final words are often cited as an ultimate example of moral clarity. [02:35] Nina Park: She reportedly said, [02:37] Nina Park: What does my death matter if by our acts, thousands are warned and alerted? [02:41] Marcus Shaw: That is such a heavy, powerful legacy. [02:45] Marcus Shaw: It is a reminder that even in the darkest times, there are people willing to speak the truth. [02:50] Marcus Shaw: While we reflect on that courage, we also have some incredible birthdays to celebrate today that changed the cultural and scientific landscape. [02:59] Nina Park: Starting with a name every student of science knows, Alessandro Volta was born on this day in 1745. [03:07] Nina Park: He was an Italian physicist, and Marcus, I think you'd agree we wouldn't have much of a modern world without him. [03:14] Marcus Shaw: Yeah. [03:14] Marcus Shaw: Volta gave us the voltaic pile, which was the very first electric battery. [03:20] Marcus Shaw: Without that foundation, we don't have portable electronics. [03:24] Marcus Shaw: We don't have handheld gaming, nothing. [03:26] Marcus Shaw: The unit of electrical potential, the volt, is named after him for very good reason. [03:31] Nina Park: And from the power of electricity to the power of the written word, [03:35] Nina Park: we also celebrate the birthday of Tony Morrison, born in 1931. [03:39] Nina Park: She was a titan of literature and became the first African-American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. [03:48] Marcus Shaw: Her work is just staggering. [03:50] Marcus Shaw: Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye. [03:53] Marcus Shaw: Nina, she didn't just write stories. [03:56] Marcus Shaw: She explored the deep, often painful complexities of the American experience with such grace. [04:02] Nina Park: She truly did. [04:04] Nina Park: And finally, we have a birthday for a figure who shaped the modern musical landscape. [04:11] Nina Park: Dr. Dre, born Andre Romel Young in 1965. [04:15] Marcus Shaw: Exactly. [04:16] Marcus Shaw: The architect of the West Coast Sound, from co-founding NWA to Aftermath Entertainment [04:23] Marcus Shaw: and then totally disrupting the tech world with Beats Electronics. [04:26] Marcus Shaw: Dre is a perfect example of how artistic vision can evolve into a massive entrepreneurial [04:33] Marcus Shaw: legacy. [04:34] Nina Park: It is a day of innovators, Marcus. [04:36] Nina Park: Whether it is discovering a planet, standing up to tyranny, or inventing the battery, [04:42] Nina Park: February 18th is full of people who refuse to accept the world as it was. [04:48] Nina Park: I have really enjoyed this conversation today. [04:51] Nina Park: Thank you for listening to Deep Dive. [04:53] Marcus Shaw: Well said, Nina. [04:54] Marcus Shaw: It has been a fascinating look at the calendar today. [04:58] Marcus Shaw: For everyone listening, thanks for joining us on this journey through time. [05:02] Marcus Shaw: To explore more history, visit deepdive.neuronewscast.com. [05:07] Marcus Shaw: Deep dive is AI-assisted, human-reviewed. [05:11] Marcus Shaw: Explore history every day on NeuroNewscast.