the orbit of Neptune populated by a trillion or more comets. Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, a change widely thought of as a demotion that has attracted controversy and debate. American astronomer Percival Lowell first caught hints of Plutos existence in 1905 from odd deviations he observed in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus, suggesting that another worlds gravity was tugging at them from beyond. He predicted its location in 1915, but died without finding it. Its discovery came in 1930 from Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory, based on predictions from Lowell and other astronomers. Pluto is the only world named by an 11-year-old girl, Venetia Burney of Oxford, England, who suggested to her grandfather that it get its name from the Roman god of the underworld. Her grandfather then passed the name on to Lowell Observatory. The name also honors Percival Lowell, whose initials are the first two letters of Pluto.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 08:38:11 +0000