Arizona Fun Facts
DID YOU KNOW???
PLUTO WAS DISCOVERED AT ARIZONA’S OWN LOWELL OBSERVATORY
Lowell Observatory was the first astronomical observatory in Arizona. In 1894, Percival Lowell, a mathematician and amateur astronomer from Massachusetts, was one of several astronomers in search of clearer skies through which to observe the planets and stars. Lowell found an ideal site for the new observatory in Flagstaff.
One of the largest objects of the Kuiper Belt, the planet Pluto was named after the Roman god. This name, as well as its astronomical symbol, also reveres Percival Lowell, who predicted the existence of the planet years previous to its actual discovery.
The year was 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, an amateur astronomer from Kansas, completed a search started by Lowell some 25 years prior: the search for a ninth planet. Clyde Tombaugh's discovery took place on February 18, 1930. Based on the suggestion of a young English girl, the new planet was named Pluto. Both the telescope used in this historic discovery and the Zeiss Blink Comparator, an instrument used successfully to examine the photographic plates of the discovery are on on display for visitors to the Observatory.
Fast foreword 76 years and Pluto is no longer a planet. In 2006 and National Geographic writes "Whoa! Pluto's dead," said astronomer Mike Brown, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, as he watched a Webcast of the vote. "There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system."
Ah well in the cosmic scheme of things it’s easy come, easy go!
|
© |
Please e-mail us anytime
