Editing Percival Lowell (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Percival Lowell - Mausoleum 2013.jpg|thumb|upright|Lowell mausoleum in 2013]]
[[File:Coat of Arms of Percival Lowell.svg|upright=1|thumb|Coat of Arms of Percival Lowell]]
Although Lowell's theories of the Martian canals, of surface features on Venus, and of Planet X are now discredited, his practice of building observatories at the position where they would best function has been adopted as a principle.<ref name="rabkin95" /> He also established the program and setting which made the discovery of Pluto by [[Clyde Tombaugh]] possible.<ref name="shaw494">{{Cite book |last=Shaw |first=H. R. |title=Craters, Cosmos, and Chronicles: A New Theory of Earth |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0-8047-2131-9 |page=494 |date=1994}}</ref> Lowell has been described by other [[planetary scientist]]s as "the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before [[Carl Sagan]]".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zahnle |first1=K. |title=Emergence of a Habitable Planet |journal=Space Science Reviews |volume=129 |issue=1–3 |pages=35–78 |date=2007 |doi=10.1007/s11214-007-9225-z |bibcode=2007SSRv..129...35Z |last2=Arndt |first2=Nick |last3=Cockell |first3=Charles |last4=Halliday |first4=Alex |author-link4 = Alex Halliday |last5=Nisbet |first5=Euan |last6=Selsis |first6=Franck |last7=Sleep |first7=Norman H.|s2cid=12006144 }}</ref>

While eventually disproved, Lowell's vision of the Martian canals as an artifact of an ancient civilization making a desperate last effort to survive, significantly influenced the development of [[science fiction]] – starting with [[H. G. Wells]]'s influential 1898 novel ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', which made the further logical inference that creatures from a dying planet might seek to invade Earth.

The image of the dying Mars and its ancient culture was retained, in numerous versions and variations, in most science fiction works depicting Mars in the first half of the twentieth century (see [[Mars in fiction]]). Even when proven to be factually mistaken, the vision of Mars derived from his theories remains enshrined in works that remain in print and widely read as classics of science fiction.

Lowell's influence on science fiction remains strong. The canals figure prominently in ''[[Red Planet (novel)|Red Planet]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]] (1949) and ''[[The Martian Chronicles]]'' by [[Ray Bradbury]] (1950). The canals, and even Lowell's mausoleum, heavily influence ''[[The Gods of Mars]]'' (1918) by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] as well as all other books in the [[Barsoom]] series.

Asteroid [[1886 Lowell]], discovered by [[Henry Giclas]] and [[Robert D. Schaldach|Robert Schaldach]] in 1949,<ref name="MoMP" /> as well as the crater [[Lowell (lunar crater)|Lowell]] on the Moon<ref>{{GPN|3493|name=Lunar crater Lowell}}</ref> and the crater [[Lowell (Martian crater)|Lowell]] on Mars,<ref>{{GPN|3494|name=Martian crater Lowell}}</ref> were named after him. The [[Lowell Regio]] on Pluto was also named in his honor after its discovery by the ''[[New Horizons]]'' spacecraft in 2015.<ref>{{GPN|15838|name=Lowell Regio}}</ref>