Percival lowell mars canals
- •
Percival Lawrence Lowell (March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto fourteen years after his death. The choice of the name Pluto and its symbol were partly influenced by his initials PL.
Percival Lowell was a scion of the Boston, Massachusetts Lowell family. His brother A. Lawrence was the president of Harvard University, and his sister Amy was an imagist poet, critic, and publisher.
Percival graduated from the Noble and Greenough School in 1872 and Harvard University in 1876 with distinction in mathematics. At his college graduation, he gave a speech, considered very advanced for its time, on the "Nebular Hypothesis." He was later awarded honorary degrees from Amherst College and Clark University.
In the 1880s, Lowell traveled extensively in the Far East. In August 1883, he served as a foreign secretary an
- •
Scientist of the Day - Percival Lowell
Sinus Titanum on Mars, drawing by Percival Lowell, frontispiece to Mars, by Percival Lowell, 1895 (Linda Hall Library)
Percival Lowell, an American businessman, astronomer, and observatory director, died Nov. 12, 1916, at the age of 61. Lowell came from a moneyed and distinguished Boston family, and he spent quite a few years in the Far East, establishing business connections, and he wrote and published several books on Korea and Japan, none of which we have in our collections. After his return in the early 1890s, he almost instantly turned himself into an astronomer. He says he read Camille Flammarion’s book on Mars, and then learned about Giovanni Schiaparelli’s claim to have seen canali on Mars (canali means channels, not canals), and Lowell was hooked. Mars would be the focus of his life for the next 15 years.
Portrait of Percival Lowell, by Pietro (Peter) Pezzati, Harvard Art Museums (harvarsdartmuseums.org)
Discovering very quickly that Mars defies easy observation – it is so small in a telescope that it is dif
- •
Percival Lowell
American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer (1855–1916)
Percival Lowell (; March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, and furthered theories of a ninth planet within the Solar System. He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death.
Life and career
Early life and work
Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855,[1][2][3] in Boston, Massachusetts, the first son of Augustus Lowell and Katherine Bigelow Lowell. A member of the BrahminLowell family, his siblings included the poet Amy Lowell, the educator and legal scholar Abbott Lawrence Lowell, and Elizabeth Lowell Putnam, an early activist for prenatal care. They were the great-grandchildren of John Lowell and, on their mother's side, the grandchildren of Abbott Lawrence.[4][3][5]
Percival graduate
Copyright ©cafebee.pages.dev 2025