Editing Percival Lowell (section)

==Life and career==
===Early life and work===

Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Eschner |first1=Kat |title=The Bizarre Beliefs of Astronomer Percival Lowell |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bizarre-beliefs-astronomer-percival-lowell-180962432/ |access-date=March 12, 2021 |work=Smithsonian Magazine |date=March 13, 2017 |archive-date=December 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225111323/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bizarre-beliefs-astronomer-percival-lowell-180962432/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Agassiz_1917">{{Cite journal |last=Agassiz |first=G.R. |date=1917 |title=Percival Lowell (1855-1916)
 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20025724.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences  |volume=52 |issue=13 |pages=845–847|jstor=20025724 }}</ref><ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2377/ |title = Chosön, the Land of the Morning Calm; a Sketch of Korea |website = [[World Digital Library]] |date = 1888 |access-date = June 11, 2013 |archive-date = November 12, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131112214341/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2377/ |url-status = live }}</ref> in [[Boston]], Massachusetts, the first son of [[Augustus Lowell]] and Katherine Bigelow Lowell. A member of the [[Boston Brahmin|Brahmin]] [[Lowell 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]].<ref>[[Delmar R. Lowell|Lowell, Delmar R.]], ''The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899'' (Rutland VT: The Tuttle Company, 1899), 283</ref><ref name="WDL"/><ref name="littmann62">{{cite book |ref=Littmann |last=Littmann |first=Mark |title=Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System |pages=62–63 |publisher=Courier |date=1985 |isbn=0-486-43602-0}}</ref>

Percival graduated from the [[Noble and Greenough School]] in 1872 and [[Harvard College]] in 1876 with distinction in mathematics.<ref name="littmann62" /> While at Harvard he joined [[Delta Kappa Epsilon]] fraternity.  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]].<ref>Balik, Rachel (March 13, 2010) [http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/profiles/l/percival-lowell.html Happy Birthday Percival Lowell, First Man to Imagine Life on Mars] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315071014/http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/profiles/l/percival-lowell.html |date=March 15, 2009 }}. findingdulcinea.com</ref> After graduation he ran a [[cotton mill]] for six years.<ref name="WDL"/>
[[File:Ambassador of Joseon to America (black and white).jpg|thumb|The special mission, before departing to the United States. Lowell is seated on the bottom right (1883)]]
In the 1880s, Lowell traveled extensively in the Far East. In August 1883, he served as a foreign secretary and counselor for a [[1883 Korean special mission to the United States|special Korean diplomatic mission to the United States]].<ref>See under [[Empress Myeongseong]] Progressives vs Conservatives</ref> He then went to Korea and lived there from December 1883 to March 1884. In 1884, he took the earliest surviving photograph of a Korean monarch: [[Gojong of Korea|King Gojong]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kwon |first=Heangga |date=2011 |title=King Gojong’s Portrait and the Advent of Photography in Korea |url=https://www.ijkaa.org/v.5/0/58/100 |journal=Journal of Korean Art & Archaeology |language=en |volume=5 |issue=0 |pages=58–69 |doi=10.23158/jkaa.2011.v5_05 |issn=2951-4983}}</ref> He also spent significant periods of time in Japan, writing books on Japanese religion, psychology, and behavior. His texts are filled with observations and academic discussions of various aspects of Japanese life, including language, religious practices, economics, travel in Japan, and the development of personality.

Books by Lowell on the Orient include ''Noto: An Unexplored Corner of Japan'' (1891) and ''Occult Japan, or the Way of the Gods'' (1894), the latter from his third and final trip to the region. His time in Korea inspired ''Chosön: The Land of the Morning Calm''<ref name="WDL"/> (1886, Boston). The most popular of Lowell's books on the Orient, ''The Soul of the Far East'' (1888), contains an early synthesis of some of his ideas that, in essence, postulated that human progress is a function of the qualities of individuality and imagination.{{citation needed|date=June 2013}} The writer [[Lafcadio Hearn]] called it a "colossal, splendid, godlike book."<ref name=Leonard>Leonard, Louise. ''Percival Lowell: An Afterglow''. RG Badger, 1921, pp. 33, 46.</ref> At his death he left with his assistant [[Wrexie Leonard]] an unpublished manuscript of a book entitled ''Peaks and Plateaux in the Effect on Tree Life''.<ref name=Leonard/>

Lowell was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1892.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2019: Chapter L|url=https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2019-10/ChapterL.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=March 12, 2021|archive-date=May 19, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240519221129/https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2019-10/ChapterL.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> He moved back to the United States in 1893.<ref name="WDL"/> He became determined to study Mars and astronomy as a full-time career after reading [[Camille Flammarion]]'s ''La planète Mars''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeonmarscomple00cham|title=Life on Mars; The Complete Story|last=Chambers|first=P.|date=1999|publisher=Blandford|isbn=0-7137-2747-0|place=London}}</ref> He was particularly interested in the [[Martian canals|canals of Mars]], as drawn by Italian astronomer [[Giovanni Schiaparelli]], who was director of the Milan Observatory. The Boston geologist George Russel Agassiz noted that Lowell made the decision to begin his observations after hearing that Schiaparelli began to experience failing eyesight.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Schorn |first=Ronald A. |title=Planetary astronomy: from ancient times to the third millennium |date=1998 |publisher=Texas A & M University Press |isbn=0-585-38034-1 |location=College Station, TX |oclc=49414656}}</ref> Beginning in the winter of 1893–94, using his wealth and influence, Lowell dedicated himself to the study of astronomy, founding the observatory which bears his name.<ref name="littmann62"/> He chose [[Flagstaff, Arizona|Flagstaff, Arizona Territory]], as the home of his new observatory. At an altitude of over {{convert|2100|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}}, with few cloudy nights, and far from city lights, Flagstaff was an excellent site for astronomical observations. This marked the first time an observatory had been deliberately located in a remote, elevated place for optimal seeing which included enhanced image quality, sharpness and steadiness.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="littmann62" /> At his Flagstaff observatory Lowell favored the use of smaller telescopes rather than larger ones, believing that they were usually better for viewing fine planetary details.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hoyt |first=William Graves |title=Lowell and Mars |date=1976 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=0-8165-0435-0 |location=Tucson |oclc=2390580}}</ref> He was assisted in setting up his observatory by William Pickering, another observer of Mars who had noted the lines seen by Schiaparelli as well.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1177/002182869302400104 | title=William H. Pickering in Jamaica: The Founding of Woodlawn and Studies of Mars | year=1993 | last1=Plotkin | first1=Howard | journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy | volume=24 | issue=1–2 | pages=101–122 | bibcode=1993JHA....24..101P | s2cid=117637626 }}</ref>

Lowell was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1897.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Percival+Lowell&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2024-03-01 |website=search.amphilsoc.org |archive-date=March 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301144357/https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Percival+Lowell&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1904, Lowell received the [[Prix Jules Janssen]], the highest award of the [[Société astronomique de France]], the French astronomical society. For the last 23 years of his life, astronomy, Lowell Observatory, and his and others' work at his observatory were the focal points of his life.

[[World War I]] very much saddened Lowell, a dedicated pacifist. This, along with some setbacks in his astronomical work (described below), undermined his health and contributed to his death from a stroke on November 12, 1916, aged 61.<ref>Croswell, Kenneth (1997) ''Planet Quest: The Epic Discovery of Alien Solar Systems''. p. 49. {{ISBN|0684832526}}.</ref> Lowell is buried on Mars Hill near his observatory.<ref name="McKim_1995">{{Cite journal |last=McKim |first=R. |date=1995 |title=Astronomy on Mars Hill |url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1995JBAA..105...69M |journal=Journal of the British Astronomical Society |volume=105 |pages=69–74 |access-date=March 12, 2021 |archive-date=May 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523101504/https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1995JBAA..105...69M |url-status=live }}</ref> Lowell claimed to "stick to the church" though at least one current author describes him as an agnostic.<ref>{{cite book|title=Percival Lowell: The Culture and Science of a Boston Brahmin|last=Strauss|first=David|date=2001|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674002913|page=280|quote=Though Lowell claimed to 'stick to the church' (doubtless from my early religious training), he was an agnostic and hostile to Christianity.}}</ref>

===Canals of Mars===
{{Further|Martian canals}}
[[File:Lowell Mars channels.jpg|thumb|left|Martian canals depicted by Percival Lowell]]
For some fifteen years (1893 to about 1908) Lowell studied Mars extensively, making intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. Lowell published his views in three books: ''Mars'' (1895), ''Mars and Its Canals'' (1906), and ''Mars As the Abode of Life'' (1908). With these writings, Lowell more than anyone else popularized the long-held belief that these markings showed that Mars sustained intelligent life forms.<ref>Kidger, Mark (2005) ''Astronomical Enigmas: Life on Mars, the Star of Bethlehem, and Other Milky Way Mysteries''. p. 110. {{ISBN|0801880262}}.</ref><ref name="NYT-20151001">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/insider/life-on-mars-you-read-it-here-first.html|title=Life on Mars? You Read It Here First.|last=Dunlap|first=David W.|date=October 1, 2015|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2022-06-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002192143/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/insider/life-on-mars-you-read-it-here-first.html|archive-date=October 2, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

His works include a detailed description of what he termed the "non-natural features" of the planet's surface, including especially a full account of the "canals," single and double; the "oases," as he termed the dark spots at their intersections; and the varying visibility of both, depending partly on the Martian seasons. He theorized that an advanced but desperate culture had built the canals to tap Mars' polar ice caps, the last source of water on an inexorably drying planet.<ref>Guthke, Karl S. (1990). ''The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Fiction''. Translated by Helen Atkins. Cornell University Press. {{ISBN|0-8014-1680-9}}. pp. 355–56.</ref>

[[File:Mariner 4 craters.gif|thumb|right|Craters on the Mars surface (frame 11) imaged by [[Mariner 4]] as it flew by Mars in 1965]]
While this idea excited the public, the astronomical community was skeptical. Many astronomers could not see these markings, and few believed that they were as extensive as Lowell claimed. As a result, Lowell and his observatory were largely ostracized.<ref>Croswell, Kenneth (1997) ''Planet Quest: The Epic Discovery of Alien Solar Systems''. p. 48. {{ISBN|0684832526}}.</ref> Although the consensus was that some actual features did exist which would account for these markings,<ref>Kidger, Mark (2005) ''Astronomical Enigmas: Life on Mars, the Star of Bethlehem, and Other Milky Way Mysteries''. p. 111. {{ISBN|0801880262}}.</ref> in 1909 the sixty-inch [[Mount Wilson Observatory]] telescope in Southern California allowed closer observation of the structures Lowell had interpreted as canals, and revealed irregular geological features, probably the result of natural erosion.<ref>Guthke, Karl S. (1990). ''The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Fiction''. Translated by Helen Atkins. Cornell University Press. pp. 356. {{ISBN|0-8014-1680-9}}.</ref>

The existence of canal-like features was definitively disproved in the 1960s by NASA's [[Mariner program|Mariner]] missions. Mariner 4, 6 and 7, and the [[Mariner 9]] orbiter (1972), did not capture images of canals but instead showed a cratered Martian surface. Today, the surface markings taken to be canals are regarded as an optical illusion.<ref name="baxter">{{Cite journal |last=Baxter |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Baxter (author) |editor=Glenn Yeffeth |title=H.G. Wells' Enduring Mythos of Mars |journal=War of the Worlds: Fresh Perspectives on the H.G. Wells Classic |publisher=BenBalla |pages=[https://archive.org/details/warofworldsfresh0000well/page/186 186–87] |isbn=1-932100-55-5 |date=2005 |url=https://archive.org/details/warofworldsfresh0000well/page/186 }}</ref> Psychologist Matthew J. Sharps has argued that perception of the canals by Lowell and others could have been the result of a combination of psychological factors, including [[Differential psychology|individual differences]], [[Gestalt psychology|Gestalt]] reconfiguration, and [[Cognitive psychology|sociocognitive]] factors.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sharps|first1=Matthew|title=Percival Lowell and the Canals of Mars|journal=Skeptical Inquirer|date=2018|volume=42|issue=3|pages=41–46}}</ref>

===Venus spokes===
[[File:Percival Lowell observing Venus from the Lowell Observatory in 1914.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Percival Lowell in 1914, observing Venus in the daytime with the {{convert|24|in|cm|adj=on}} Alvan Clark & Sons refracting telescope at Flagstaff, Arizona]]
Although Lowell was better known for his observations of Mars, he also drew maps of the planet [[Venus]]. He began observing Venus in detail in mid-1896 soon after the {{convert|61|cm|in|abbr=off|adj=on}} [[Alvan Clark & Sons]] refracting telescope was installed at his new Flagstaff, Arizona observatory. Lowell observed the planet high in the daytime sky with the telescope's lens stopped down to 3 inches in diameter to reduce the effect of the turbulent daytime atmosphere. Lowell observed spoke-like surface features including a central dark spot, contrary to what was suspected then (and known now): that Venus has no surface features visible from Earth, being covered in an atmosphere that is opaque. It has been noted in a 2003 ''Journal for the History of Astronomy'' paper and in an article published in ''[[Sky and Telescope]]'' in July 2003 that Lowell's stopping down of the telescope created such a small [[Exit pupil#Telescopes|exit pupil]] at the [[eyepiece]], it may have become a giant [[Ophthalmoscopy|ophthalmoscope]] giving Lowell an image of the shadows of blood vessels cast on the [[retina]] of his own eye.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/3306251.html?page=1&c=y |title=SkyandTelescope.com – News from Sky & Telescope – Venus Spokes: An Explanation at Last?<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=June 5, 2008 |archive-date=February 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221175545/http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/3306251.html?page=1&c=y |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Sheehan, W. & Dobbins, T., The spokes of Venus: an illusion explained, Journal for the History of Astronomy {{ISSN|0021-8286}}, Vol. 34, Part 1, No. 114, pp. 53–63 (2003) [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2003JHA....34...53S via SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211183932/http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2003JHA....34...53S |date=December 11, 2016 }}</ref>

===Pluto===
Lowell's greatest contribution to planetary studies came during the last decade of his life, which he devoted to the search for [[Planet X]], a hypothetical planet beyond Neptune. Lowell believed that the planets [[Uranus]] and [[Neptune]] were displaced from their predicted positions by the gravity of the unseen Planet X.<ref name="rabkin95" /> Lowell started a search program in 1906. A team of [[human computer]]s, led by [[Elizabeth Langdon Williams|Elizabeth Williams]] were employed to calculate predicted regions for the proposed planet. The program initially used a camera {{convert|5|in|cm}} in aperture.<ref name="Tombaugh1946">{{cite journal |last=Tombaugh |first=C. W. |author-link=Clyde Tombaugh |date=1946 |title=The Search for the Ninth Planet, Pluto |journal=Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets |volume=5 |issue= 209|pages=73–80 |bibcode=1946ASPL....5...73T}}</ref>  The small field of view of the {{convert|42|in|cm|adj=on}} reflecting telescope rendered the instrument impractical for searching.<ref name="Tombaugh1946"/>  From 1914 to 1916, a {{convert|9|in|cm|adj=on}} telescope on loan from [[Sproul Observatory]] was used to search for Planet X.<ref name="Tombaugh1946"/>  Lowell did not discover Pluto but later Lowell Observatory ([[List of observatory codes#600-699|observatory code 690]]) would photograph Pluto in March and April 1915, without realizing at the time that it was not a star.<ref name=Buie-Pluto>{{cite web |last=Buie |first=Marc W. |date=August 11, 2008 |title=Orbit Fit and Astrometric record for 134340 |publisher=SwRI (Space Science Department) |url=http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~buie/kbo/astrom/134340.html |access-date=February 21, 2010 |author-link=Marc W. Buie |archive-date=June 22, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622040831/http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~buie/kbo/astrom/134340.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Pluto monogram (fixed width).svg|alt=Ligature combining the letters P and L|thumb|The [[Astronomical symbols|astronomical symbol]] for [[Pluto]] is a [[Ligature (writing)|ligature]] combining the letters P and L.]]
In 1930, [[Clyde Tombaugh]], working at the [[Lowell Observatory]], discovered [[Pluto]] near the location expected for Planet X. Partly in recognition of Lowell's efforts, a stylized P-L monogram (♇) – the first two letters of the new planet's name and also Lowell's initials – was chosen as Pluto's [[astronomical symbol]].<ref name="rabkin95">{{Cite book |last=Rabkin |first=Eric S. |title=Mars: a tour of the human imagination |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-275-98719-1 |page=95 |date=2005}}</ref> However, it would subsequently emerge that the Planet X theory was mistaken.{{cn |date=September 2023}}

Pluto's mass could not be determined until 1978, when its satellite [[Charon (moon)|Charon]] was discovered. This confirmed what had been increasingly suspected: Pluto's gravitational influence on Uranus and Neptune is negligible, not nearly enough to account for the discrepancies in their orbits.<ref name="kutner523">{{Cite book |last=Kutner |first=Marc Leslie |title=Astronomy: A Physical Perspective |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-52927-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/astronomyphysica00kutn/page/523 523] |date=2003 |url=https://archive.org/details/astronomyphysica00kutn/page/523 }}</ref> In 2006, Pluto was reclassified as a [[dwarf planet]] by the [[International Astronomical Union]].

In addition, the discrepancies between the predicted and observed positions of Uranus and Neptune were found ''not'' to be caused by the gravity of an unknown planet. Rather, they were due to an erroneous value for the mass of Neptune. ''[[Voyager 2]]''{{'}}s 1989 encounter with Neptune yielded a more accurate value of its mass, and the discrepancies disappeared when using this value.<ref>Standage, Tom (2000) ''The Neptune File: A Story of Astronomical Rivalry and the Pioneers of Planet Hunting''. {{ISBN|0802713637}}. p. 188</ref>