Percival Lowell
Lowell’s attraction to Mars led him into a love affair with worlds beyond our own
From the study of Mars and the prediction of Pluto to the building of the observatory that bears his name, Lowell dove headlong into astronomy. Lowell was born on 13 March 1855. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1876 with a degree in mathematics. After college, Lowell worked for his family’s textile business, and in 1883 he served as a foreign secretary as part of the first Korean diplomatic mission.
In the 1890s, Lowell learned about the discovery of ‘canalis’ on Mars by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli was reporting on channels crisscrossing the surface of the Red Planet, but the English mistranslation of ‘canals’ fired up excitement in Lowell. Determined to be prepared for Martian opposition in 1894, Lowell decided to build an observatory. He selected Flagstaff, Arizona, where the high altitude, thin atmosphere and remote location would give him a good view of the planet. He built Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill, where he sketched the surface of Mars as it drew closer. What he found – or thought he found – electrified him.
Soon after his observations, Lowell announced his discovery of canals and oases on Mars. The long straight lines he sketched and described were not natural features, but channels of water cut by a dying civilisation, he claimed. The idea of intelligent beings on Mars quickly caught on in the public imagination, fuelled by Lowell’s enthusiasm. He delivered a series of lectures on the canals and the society that constructed them, as well as writing three books – Mars,
Mars and its Canals and Mars as the Abode of
Life – and a slew of articles on the Red Planet. But the canals Lowell insisted he saw couldn’t be observed by other scientists; he claimed that such observations depended heavily on viewing conditions. But Lowell’s canals were definitively disproven by NASA’s Mariner missions. In 1965, Mariner 4 took close-up images of Mars, and in 1971, Mariner 9 mapped it. No canals were found.
Lowell also mapped features on Venus, though later observations revealed none could be seen through the planet’s thick atmosphere. It’s most likely the features Lowell spotted on both bodies were the result of an optical illusion caused by his telescope. Lowell also calculated that variations in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus were caused by a ninth planet, which he dubbed Planet X. In 1906, Lowell put his observatory to work searching for the missing planet.
Lowell had suffered health problems over his lifetime, and on 12 November 1916, at the age of 61, he died of a cerebral haemorrhage at Mars Hill. Lowell left behind a fortune to fund the observatory’s continued search for Planet X. His widow contested this, and a legal battle ensued that depleted most of the funds. Nevertheless, the search for the planet continued.
In 1930, an astronomer employed at the observatory, Clyde Tombaugh, noticed movement in photos taken at different times. Using an instrument known as a blink comparator, he flipped rapidly between two photos of the sky, checking for movement between them. On 13 March that year, a new planet was announced: Pluto. The name was chosen because the cold, distant planet may well have resembled the home of the Greek god of the underworld. The symbol for Pluto encompasses Lowell’s initials. Pluto, reclassified in 2006 as a dwarf planet, is too small to have impacted the orbit of Uranus and Neptune. In fact, accurate measurements of the icy gas giants showed that their orbits never really shifted, making Lowell’s measurements completely coincidental.
Although none of Lowell’s theories ultimately panned out, his enthusiasm provided a significant boost to the public’s imagination when it came to Mars. His search for Planet X led to the discovery of Pluto, and the construction of Lowell Observatory led to a number of significant scientific findings.