You can thank Clayton Kershaw's great-uncle for humanity's knowledge of Pluto

The L.A. area is home to the Griffith Observatory, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the original Tomorrowland -- and, it turns out, a famous relative of an astronomical pioneer.

As he explains at 3:30 of this video, Clayton Kershaw's great-uncle was Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. Pluto was considered the ninth planet at the time, but it was demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006 after the discovery of numerous similar trans-Neptunian objects.

There's still a vocal contingent that protests Pluto's downgrading, and I'd have to guess Kershaw and his family are part of it.

-- Dan Wohl / MLB.com