Aartifacts Relating to Pluto at the Lowell Observatory
I was very excited to visit the Lowell Observatory. I have heard about this place since I was a kid and I can’t believe that I am actually here. Lowell Observatory is best known for being the place where the now dwarf planet Pluto was discovered. The tiny world was discovered through a tedious process of comparing patches of sky taken several days apart. Because background stars are much further than planets or anything in the solar system, it would be easy to tell is something is worthy of interest or not. Imagine zooming in to small patch of sky and hoping that something would be there. I think they had a general idea of where it might be but it wasn’t until 1930 that Clyde Tombaugh finally located it.
Instruments Used at the Lowell Observatory
Back then, the methods were crude compared to current method. These instruments which were used back then are on exhibit in the observatory. There were also letters from interested people who want to propose the name for the new planet. Eventually, a young girl named Venetia Burney proposed the name Pluto after the Roman god of the underworld. This seemed to be a very fitting name for the new world since it is so remote almost like it is at the edge of the solar system. The name stuck. Soon the whole world would know that the solar system has nine planets.
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