Asteroids discovered: 1

793 Arizona

April 9 1907

Author, mathematician, and esteemed astronomer, Percival Lowell (March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916) fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the work and theories that lead to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death.

Biography

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Percival Lowell, who was a descendant of the distinguished Boston Lowell family, was the brother of A. Lawrence, president of Harvard University, and Amy, a well-known Imagist poet and critic.

Percival graduated from Harvard University in 1876 with distinction in mathematics, and traveled extensively through the Far East before deciding to study Mars and astronomy as a full-time career. He was particularly interested in the supposed canals of Mars, as drawn by Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory and an esteemed Italian astronomer.

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