History of Pluto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following Percival Lowell's death at the age of 61 in 1916, the search for the mysterious "Planet X" continued. Astronomers narrowed their search on the ecliptic, the path that our Sun, Moon and all of the planets travel along in the background of stars. The constellations that these objects pass through are known as the Constellations of the Zodiac.

 

What Percival did not know was that he did photograph a world in March and April of 1915. It wasn't until February 18, 1930 that a young astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh discovered this very same mysterious world found near the star Wasat, the 9th brightest star in the constellation of Gemini, the Twins.

 

A young English girl named Venetia Burney suggested the name of this outermost world to her grandfather. She suggested that this world be named after the Roman God of the Underworld and giver of Wealth, Pluto. This world needed a planetary symbol, so to honor the name of the person that led to this discovery of this distant world, the planetary symbol pictured above was proposed.  The symbol is based on the first two initials of Percival Lowell, the person who first predicted the existence of Pluto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  The exact location of Pluto on the day of its discovery.

Image above Courtesy of Stellarium Computer Program